Re: an awful mutt thing just happened

[MaD dUCK <madduck@madduck.net>]

also sprach Peter Jay Salzman (on Fri, 02 Mar 2001 05:15:35PM -0800):
> On Fri 02 Mar 01,  8:06 PM, MaD dUCK said: 
> > are you running mail as root??? don't do that!
> just out of curiosity, why?  i've never heard a compelling reason
> for that

the simplest reason: because you shouldn't ever be logged in as root
for longer than a particular task takes.

the more elaborate stuff (and this is only an extract):

- vi has a feature which can extract commands out of files to execute
  them while the file is being loaded. this is useful, if for instance
  you are a ts=2 person, but that one program's config file isn't
  usable unless ts=8. so vi reads the file, executes the command, then
  displays the file. if this command is something well though of which
  executes something through a shell, and someone sent a mail to root
  containing this command, then it would be executed possibly even
  without root noticing it.

- there were a couple of problems with sendmail relating to malformed
  reply-to addresses which included a pipe symbol. basically the core
  of it was that you'd put a script of the form

    #!/bin/sh
    install -o-0 -g=0 /usr/bin/ksh /tmp/blech
    chmod u+s !!:4

    sendmail $*

  into /tmp/\@yahoo.com and then send mail to root with a reply-to
  address similar to "laure|@yahoo.com".

  if root were to reply, the script would be executed, creating
  /tmp/blech as a setuid shell that would immediately give root
  rights...

you should just set up a user account ('p' in your case), put

  p@localhost

into ~root/.forward

and define a procmail filter to store all your root mail in
~p/mail/root.

> >   echo $MAIL
> /var/spool/mail/p

the problem is this: /var/mail/p contains your mail spool, but mutt
may possibly be moving read mail somewhere else.

if i were you, i'd create a file ~/mail/inbox, define a simple
procmail recipe like:

:0
$HOME/mail/inbox

point your .forward to /usr/bin/procmail, change MAIL to ~/mail/inbox
permanently, and add every single one of the mailboxes you have to
.muttrc as follows:

(e.g. for mailboxes in, work, debian:)

mailboxes +in
mailboxes +work
mailboxes +debian

where '+' will expand to the path you specified with the "set folder"
clause in .muttrc.

keeping all your mail in /var's spool isn't necessarily all too great
i find - issues are locking, privacy, backing up, and others.

> > and in mutt, after you hit c, type '=' (no quotes) and then hit tab
> > once or twice. report what happens.
>  
> this works.  didn't know about this keybinding.  thanks!  :)

'=' expands to the mail folder, just like '+' above. and tab
completion works all the way throughout mutt.

> i'm curious if a bunch of other messages start appearing.  do you have
> woody?   when was the last time you upgraded?

nah. potato. i need a working system, not too much in need of the
cutting edge.

martin

[greetings from the heart of the sun]# echo madduck@!#:1:s@\@@@.net
-- 
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                                                -- friedrich nietzsche