Subject: Auto Delete

From: Sharon Deng <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 10:53:19 -0700 (PDT)

I have disk space problem in my system. And most of the users don't
remember to delete their mail after reading it even they don't intend to
keep it.  Are there any way in the system level we can set to automatically
delete the mail after reading it unless the users save it explicitly? 

Sharon Deng
Assistant Director			Internet: [email-masked]
Academic Computer Center			  [email-masked]
University of Redlands			   Phone: (909)793-2121 x.4963

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From: Terry Gray <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 11:27:43 -0700 (PDT)

In the next version we plan to have a configuration option that would cause
(upon quitting Pine) the user to be asked if they want to save all read 
messages to a folder, as Elm does.

I'm not eager to add yet another prompt upon quitting... What if the 
beginning-of-month sent-mail pruning was extended to include the 
proposed received/read message folder?

-teg

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From: Andy Poling <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 14:59:54 -0400

> proposed received/read message folder?

That reminds me of something I've been meaning to mention.  I have my
saved-messages folder set to null, but I get asked every month if I want
to move "" to "-month-year" (or whatever it uses).  It seems unnecessary
to ask to move aside a non-existent unused saved-messages folder...

Other than that (and better MIME support, which I know is already in the
works) I think PINE is the best thing since sliced bread.

-Andy

Andy Poling                              Internet: [email-masked]
UNIX Systems Programmer                  Bitnet: ANDY@JHUNIX
Homewood Academic Computing              Voice: (410)516-8096    
Johns Hopkins University                 UUCP: uunet!mimsy!aplcen!jhunix!andy

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From: Terry Gray <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 12:23:24 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks Andy.

Fixing the unnecessary prompt is on the list.

-teg

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From: Mike Kuniavsky <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 16:14:54 -0500

>   Are there any way in the system level we can set to
>   automatically delete the mail after reading it unless
>   the users save it explicitly? 

There's a piece of software called mailclean (in comp.sources.misc volume 22,
available at all of the usual places or check archie) which removes "old"
(definable) mail after a set period of time from mailboxes, leaving all of the
other mail.  There's also procmail (comp.sources.misc volume 35, I believe)
which  can automatically deliver incoming mail to a file in the users' home
directories (as opposed to /usr/spool/mail/username), thus allowing quota to see
all of the mail (and thus indirectly forcing people to delete unwanted mail).  I
have not used either of these systems yet, but they both seem like reasonable
solutions to the problem.

Mike Kuniavsky  U-M ITD/CSS UNIX Support
[email-masked]  (313) 998-6262

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From: Andy Poling <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 16:30:59 -0400

> >   the users save it explicitly? 
[...]
> There's also procmail (comp.sources.misc volume 35, I believe)
> all of the mail (and thus indirectly forcing people to delete unwanted mail).

Our solution to keeping users' mail in the quota'd area was to make
/usr/spool/mail a symlink to /users/mail, where /users is the partition
holding users' home directories and on which quotas are active.

Note: that created a new set of problems when mail got bounced because a
user was temporarily too close to their quota for the mail to fit.  I
ended up making quota-overage a temporary failure, giving the user 3 days
to clean up and get their backed-up mail.  This seems to make everybody
pretty happy.  Of course retrying all of this backed up mail can kill your
system - we use a modified version of zmailer as our MTA, allowing me to
specify that over-quota failures will only be retried every 8 hours.

-Andy

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From: "A. Hilborne" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 13:50:52 +0100 (BST)

> proposed received/read message folder?

Please, let's make all such prompts configuration options (as in Elm.) 
I'm sure they help the neophyte user, but they are a real pain in the neck
to everyone else, and they gain us nothing, as we simply become used to
typing q RET y RET at the end.

--
Andrew M. Hilborne                        [email-masked]
Computing Service                    Tel: +44 91 222 8226 (direct)
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.    +44 91 222 8039 (Comp Service office)

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From: Dan Schlitt <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 10:50:33 -0400 (EDT)

I agree about the prompts on quiting.  I find them very annoying.  I would
like to see the "do you really want to quit" prompt go away at the
"old-growth" level.  When I hit q I mean I want to quit.  I don't see any
damage that will occur if I make a mistake.  The "do you really want to
delete" prompt can save you so it might make sense to make it configurable.

At the middle level you might make things configurable but have the novice
level configuration as default.

I realize that this adds to the complexity of the program.  But you
already have invited that complexity by have three levels.  The only thing
that you haven't done is make the levels significantly different.  What
did the designers have in mind when they included them in the design?

/dan

Dan Schlitt                           School of Engineering Computer Systems
[email-masked]        City College of New York
(212)650-6760                         New York, NY 10031

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From: Philip Hazel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 16:09:52 +0100 (BST)

> typing q RET y RET at the end.

Absolutely! To send a message my fingers now automatically type ^X Y 
without thinking, and similarly my brain now associates the "expunge" 
function with the key sequence X Y. I would love to turn these prompts off.

--
Philip Hazel                   University Computing Service,
[email-masked]             New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
[email-masked]          England.  Phone: +44 223 334714

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From: Sharon Deng <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 08:41:12 -0700 (PDT)

> function with the key sequence X Y. I would love to turn these prompts off.

I agree to make it as configuration option.  I always do what Philip
does, and I know a lot of my users do the same thing.  No point to make
another prompt. 

Sharon Deng