Experimenting? Make Backups!
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While you're setting up mhook programs, as you're changing the
setup later, or any time you aren't sure that things are working right,
it's a good idea to make backup copies of all your incoming mail.
Periodically, check your backup mail to be sure you've gotten all the
messages you should.
Then remove the backup.
If you have access to a second account, forward a copy of all your
mail to it.
My main account is jerry, but I also have a jerrytst account.
My system runs sendmail, so I make a .forward file like
this on my jerry account:
jerrytst, "| /x/y/slocal -user jerry"
If you don't have a second account, you can use a .forward file
that makes a copy in a file somewhere on your account.
The file may need to be world-writable (mode 666 or 622), though, and
that can be a security hole.
The following .forward file copies all incoming mail to a file
named mail.bak in my home directory:
/home/jerry/mail.bak, "| /x/y/slocal -user jerry"
A third choice: have sendmail drop a copy of the message into
your system mailbox before (or after) it runs slocal.
It's simple to set up but it's also a little messy because your mailbox
may get two copies of a lot of messages.
Put a backslash before your username to prevent reforwarding of the copy:
\jerry, "| /x/y/slocal -user jerry"
An easy way to clean out your backup mail file is by copying the system
"empty file" onto it.
For example, on the jerrytst account, I type:
% scan -file /usr/spool/mail/jerrytst
...Check scan listing of my backup mail...
% cp /dev/null /usr/spool/mail/jerrytst
Are you sure that slocal is working but uncomfortable that
your .maildelivery file may be losing messages?
If you aren't sure, add an entry to file a copy of all messages into a folder:
* - ^ R "/x/y/rcvstore +DELETE"
scan through your DELETE folder whenever you're looking for
missing mail.
Remember to clean it out with rmm or an automated
script (see the Section
Periodic Cleanup, Checking, etc. with cron and at
for an introduction and examples).
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