Re: How can I get mail from /var/mail/jatmin to my spoolfile

["Josef Atmin" <jatmin@xxxxxx>]

After having discovered macros I came up with the following solution for 
moving mail from /var/mail/jatmin to ~/INBOX.

   macro index,pager G "\
<enter-command>unset wait_key<enter>\
<shell-escape>\
if [[ -s /var/mail/$USER ]]; then\
  cat /var/mail/$USER >> ~/INBOX;\
  echo -n > /var/mail/$USER;\
fi<return>\
<enter-command>set wait_key<enter>\
<fetch-mail>" "fetch local and pop3 mail"

This seems to do what I want.  It is a hack, and I am not quite sure 
whether it is safe (therefore my version within the if-statement looks 
like

  cp /var/mail/$USER ~/=var=mail=$USER-backup;\
  cp ~/INBOX ~/INBOX-backup;\
  cat /var/mail/$USER >> ~/INBOX;\
  echo -n > /var/mail/$USER;\
  echo There has been local e-Mail!;\
  sleep 2;\

for the time being to have some backup).  However, it's ok for me.

Cheers, Josef.



On Fri, Feb 06, 2009 at 10:30:29AM +0100, Josef Atmin wrote:
> 
> Hello mutt users,
> 
> I am new to mutt and cannot figure out how to move mail from my local 
> spoolfile /var/mail/jatmin (or /var/spool/mail/jatmin) to my mutt 
> $spoolfile ~/INBOX when I press 'G' (or automatically).  
> 
> I need this for the following reason.  Since I work in different 
> cities, I use different computers in different domains.  I synchronize 
> my home directories with unison (a great tool btw).  I receive external 
> email via a pop server and local mail via /var/mail/jatmin.  For 
> security reasons I want the local mail to stay local and not forward it 
> to my pop server.  I also cannot forward it to my ~/INBOX file, because 
> of the synchronization issue (I would get modified files on different 
> machine and would have to merge the different versions of INBOX each 
> time I synchronize my home directories).  I also want to avoid to set 
> the mutt $spoolfile to /var/mail/jatmin because I need all my current 
> mail in my home directory, again because of the synchronization issue, 
> and I don't want to visit /var/mail/jatmin each time I want to check 
> whether I have new local mail.
> 
> So I would like to configure mutt such that the 'G' command not only 
> fetches mail from the pop server but also from /var/mail/jatmin.  Is 
> there any way I can do this?
> 
> I have found nothing in the documentation.  The question came up 
> on the mailing list previously, but the solution suggested was to 
> set $spoolfile to /var/mail/jatmin and maybe $mbox to ~/INBOX.  But this 
> is not what I want, because it is quite cumbersome.  I also know 
> about the 's' commant to save a mail in a different mbox, but that is 
> cumbersome as well.  I want an elegant solution.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Josef.