Re: [Exim] Resending messages

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Author: Tor Slettnes
Date:  
To: Steffen Heil
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] Resending messages
On Apr 6, 2004, at 06:10, Steffen Heil wrote:

> Is there a difference between
> $ /usr/sbin/sendmail add@ress < file
> and
> $ exim4 -bml add@ress < file


Yes, there is. The former is a valid command, the latter yields:

     exim abandoned: unknown, malformed, or incomplete option -bml


I am guessing that you meant '-bm'. If so, the FM says:

     This is the default option for selecting the overall action of an
     Exim call; it is assumed if no other conflicting option is present.


In other words - it's the same as no option.

> Is there a way to resend automatically to Envelope-to: headers ?


Sure.. with a little bit of shell scripting. For instance, you could
feed something like the following script to 'formail -s scriptname <
mbox':


      #!/bin/bash


      msg=$(cat)
      rcpt=$(echo "$msg" | formail -x Envelope-To:)
      echo "$msg" | /usr/sbin/sendmail "$rcpt"



But may I ask what you are trying to do?
And let me guess: You are trying to migrate your mail spools to a
different format (e.g. Maildir or Cyrus). If so, beware of a drawback
or two when it comes to processing your mail again via Exim:

    - The "received date", as seen by e.g. the Courier or Cyrus IMAP
servers, will be today's date, not the date you orginally received the
mail.  (In the case of Cyrus, this can be remedied afterwards by even
more elaborate shell scripting: "touch" each file with a time stamp
extracted from the message headers, then run "cyrreconstruct").


    - You will add another (semi-duplicate) "Received:" line in each
mail -- this could be confusing if you were later trying to trace it.


You are often better off moving your mail from within an IMAP client
(such as Apple's Mail.app, Microsoft Lookout/Lookout Express, etc..).
You would need to setup two IMAP accounts in the client, one for the
"old" mail store and one for the new one. This means that you
temporarily also need two IMAP servers running simultaneously --
perhaps, let the old server listen on a separate port.

Anyway, good luck!
-tor