[Exim] Best practices: .forward and .procmailrc?

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Author: Derek Simkowiak
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [Exim] Best practices: .forward and .procmailrc?
    I'm trying to use procmail as my local delivery agent. But I'm
having some confusion as to the relationship of the Exim to procmail.

    Exim has built-in support for the .forward file -- my
understanding is that this is a feature 'inherited' (read: copied) from
Sendmail.  Specifically, I'm talking about the "userforward:" entry in the
default config file.


    However, the procmail man page says:


----------------------------------------------------------
Procmail should be invoked automatically over the .forward file mechanism
as soon as mail arrives.
----------------------------------------------------------

    Does that mean I should disable the "userforward:" entry in the
confige file?  Or does that mean I should have procmail invoked as a pipe
command _via_ the .forward file?


    In short, does procmail ever use or read the .forward file?


    I am further confused by the next sentence in the procmail man
page:


----------------------------------------------------------
Alternatively, when installed by a system administrator, it can be invoked
from within the mailer immediately.
----------------------------------------------------------

    It seems to me that this is saying the exact same thing as the
last sentence, and yet it says "alternatively".


    I want users to be able to both (a) have mail forwarded to
arbitrary other accounts, and (b) use procmail to filter messages and take
other recipe-based actions.  Would that involve both the .forward file and
the .procmailrc?  Or does that mean users would need to have a recipe in
.procmailrc to do any desired forwarding?


    Any help (esp. examples) would be greatly appreciated.



Thank You,
Derek Simkowiak