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* Derek Simkowiak (dereks@???) [030108 13:45]:
>
> 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?
The latter. One way to run procmail (i.e. on a system which does not
run it "automatically") is to run it from a pipe from 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".
Not exactly; this is saying that exim can run procmail without regard to
any .forward handling.
For example, you _could_ remove the userforward director/router
(depending on your exim version) and have procmail still run via a
procmail director/router from within exim.
The first way you mention above means without any changes to the exim
configs, a user could spawn procmail from his .forward file.
I think the best way is to leave the userforward director/router there
and to add a procmail router/director as well. On my systems, I
generally put it after the userforward director/router, so that a
.forward file is used if found (and is where a user can do any
overriding). If there's not .forward, it looks for a .procmailrc. If
there's no .procmailrc, it'll just do a normal delivery.
If you decide to reverse the order of the directors/routers, it'll look
for .procmailrc first and use procmail if it finds it. If not, it'll
look for .forward and use that if it finds it, or just do a normal
delivery.
Note that you'll also have to set up a procmail-transport that actually
feeds the message into procmail. Numerous examples exist; someone has
already posted one in this thread.
good times,
Vineet
>
> 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?
It sounds like you do want to use both a userforward and a procmail
router/director, and the order you specify them in is up to you.
good times,
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