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Re: /var/mail/$username" is not a mailbox

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On Wednesday, October  8 at 02:56 PM, quoth Indi:
>Thank you for the helpful advice. I still don't know for sure what 
>happened, but I "fixed" it like this:
>mv /var/mail/indi out of the way
>cp /var/mail/root to /var/mail/indi
>chown indi:mail /var/mail/indi
>changed .muttrc to use MH instead and redid mailbox entries accordingly

Fair enough. I'd recommend Maildir over MH, but <shrug>. The key thing 
is that you don't leave important messages in your mailspool file 
(i.e. your $mbox setting is different from your $spoolfile setting).

>Examining the original /var/mail/indi (in jed) reveals nothing unusual;
>there must be some hidden property of which I am ignorant.

What you should look for is stuff like:

     - do ALL messages in the file begin with a "From ..." line? (if
       not, add a From line)
     - are there any other lines that begin with the letters "From "?
       (if so, prepend them with a ">")
     - do ALL messages in the file contain a Content-Length: header?
       (if not, add one... this may be tricky to do by hand)

You may be able to rescue the messages in the file by splitting them 
into individual files and opening them with mutt (e.g. `mutt -f 
rescued`).

Good luck!

~Kyle
- -- 
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the 
problem.
                                                     -- John Galsworthy
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