On Mon, Jun 24, 2002 at 11:31:06PM -0400, Daniel Barclay wrote: > Is there any POP server that can combine the mail from another POP server > with mail in a mail file? > > I'd like to have a local POP server that, when queried, queries another > POP server and looks at a local mail file, and then serves the combined > set of messages to the POP client. Mail administration is not my area of expertise, but here are some thoughts/suggestions: Why not ISP->fetchmail->exim->[procmail->~/mail->]local IMAP->netscape? I thought netscape 4 had IMAP support, doesn't it? > Here's why I ask: > > 1. > - mail is delived to a mail spool file on my ISP's machine > - my ISP has a POP server > - I retrieve regular mail on demand over POP using Netscape > > > 2. > - I filter messages from high-volume mailing lists (such as this > one) into a separate mail file using a .forward file in my shell > account on my ISP's machine > > - I download that mail file every so often with a cron job, appending > it to a new-mail file > > - when I read mailing-list mail, I use Emacs RMAIL to read the > mail from that new-mail file into an RMAIL file > > > 3. > - I want to switch to reading those mailing list messages in Netscape. > > - I want to keep downloading the high-volume messages. (I don't want > them to accumulate on my ISP's machine, in case I don't read mail > often enough and they exceed my disk-space quota. I also don't want > them cluttering up my regular mail file in case I need to telnet in > from some remote location and do a "less" on my mail file.) procmail will keep things apart, but if you are limited to one POP account, then I don't think POP3 will be useful here. Only by using IMAP (or several POP accounts) you can keep mail sorted on the server side. > - I want regular messages to remain on my ISP's machine until I > retrieve them from Netscape. (I check my mail in "keep-on-server" > mode from work (or using telnet from some remote location) if I > haven't yet retrieved it from home.) > > - Netscape 4.x (yes, I know...) can only retrieve from one POP server. > > > 4. > Here's what I think I'd like to happen: > > - I keep separating high-volume mail using my .forward file on my ISP's > machine. > > - I keep downloading the high-volume mail separately. > > - When I retrieve mail using Netscape at home, it connects to a special, > local POP server. > > - The local POP server queries my ISP's POP server, _and_ looks at > the downloaded mail file, and presents the _combined_ set of > messages to Netscape. Let fetchmail regurlary fetch that mail from ISP to your local box, perhaps via cron. > (Netscape at home runs in don't-keep-messages-on-server mode, so the > local POP server would use that mode to talk to the ISP POP server, > and would delete messages from the downloaded mail file.) > > > Other approaches that work would be fine too. > > Some related questions seem to be: > > Is there any safe way to asynchronously append messages to a Netscape > mail file? Or would I need to run a command when I know I'm not using > the mail that to which messages are appended externally? When you use netscape to read your mail, it connects to local POP, "downloads" the messages and then displays them. So netscape is always operating on a copy of what the POP server actually got. There can be no lock problems as far as netscape is concerned, as I understand things. > Can fetchmail download only certain messages? (Maybe I could retrieve > the mailing-list messages with cron, and leave the remainder there, if > there's a (reliable) way to get list messages back into Netscape.) What is the point in not having all mail transfered immediately (or by cron/fetcmail) to your local POP? -- Note that I use Debian version 3.0 Linux emac140 2.4.17 #1 sön feb 10 20:21:22 CET 2002 i686 unknown Hans Ekbrand
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