Re: missing /var/mail

["Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 06:33:30AM -0800, Daniel Burrows wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 11:22:50AM -0500, "Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca> was heard to say:
> > On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 09:45:42PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
> >  > 
> > > > There are other mailbox formats, most notably Maildir, which store each
> > > > message in a separate file.  If the system drops while a file is being
> > > > written and that file's data is lost, then you only lose one message
> > > > instead of the whole mailbox.
> > > 
> > > That's exactly what I meant
> > 
> > OK.  With stock Debian's exim4 and mutt, how do I switch from mbox to
> > maildir?  I assume that once I do, the user's interaction with the mail
> > from within Mutt will look the same?
> 
>   I believe that if you dpkg-reconfigure exim, you get a prompt asking
> whether to use Maildir.

Thanks,

Its been quite easy.  dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config, choose maildir.
Add MAIL=/home/$USER/Maildir to /etc/bash.bashrc so that mutt picks it
up.

One question:  Is there a way for bash to check Maildir for new mail or
should I just disable its check alltogether?  It is misleading for it to
say "no mail".  I also have been in the habit of using "from -c"; is
there a Maildir equivalent?  I also see from the mutt man page that it
refers one to the maildir(5) man page which I can't find.

Ok, another question.

All our saved messages are in mbox format.  In the future, can mutt save
messages to Maildir directories instead of mbox files?  Is there a
conversion program?

Thanks,

Doug.