procmail filtering into Netscape mailboxes

[Peter B. West]

Is it safe to use procmail filtering to direct mail into Netscape
Communicator mail folders? The folders look like normal ailbox files,
but there are also summary files. How and when are these updated?

Yours faithfully,
--
__ /__ Peter B. West
/ cite...@westp.citec.qld.gov.au
/ +61 7 3227 8259

[Peter B. West]

"Peter B. West" wrote:
>
> Is it safe to use procmail filtering to direct mail into Netscape
> Communicator mail folders? The folders look like normal ailbox files,
> but there are also summary files. How and when are these updated?

Having read Jamie Zawinski's article on movemail (again)
<http://sitesearch.netscape.com/au/eng/mozilla/3.0/relnotes/demo/movemail.html>,
and having experimented with the Communicator mail folders, I have
changed the setup of my .procmailrc file, and set up mail filters in
Netscape. Deliveries which were going to folders in the procmail
recipes, now go to $DEFAULT (my normal system mailbox.)

This was for two reasons:

1) Netscape movemail does not adapt well to the use of Netscape folders
as targets for mail, and does not recognise mail locking.

2) The summary files do not get updated, so that whenever new mail
arrives, the status of all files in the folder reverts to what it was
when the last Netscape-initiated folder changes occurred.

The netscape mail filters are cumbersome, but usable. The problem now
is that the movemail function seems to ignore instructions to check for
and download mail. That renders xbiff's on the Netscape folders
ineffective. Too bad.