Subject: INBOX again: BSD-mail-mbox model not allowed?

From: Peter Svanberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 15:11:04 +0100

I've tried to read all about INBOX in the documentation and in
old messages on this list. Conclusions:

1) It is impossible to get the BSD-mail behavior with BSD-
   format usage in PINE - i.e. that incoming, read and unread
   mail is handled in _one_ file, which is not in
   /usr/spool/mail. 

2) With Tenex-format usage - on the other hand - this behavior
   is the default: /usr/spool/mail contents is silently moved to
   the mail.TxT file.

Questions:

3) Is the silently-moving model considered bad for _all_ users?
   In what way?

4) If so, why is that model still used with Tenex? If not, why
   not allow it in BSD-format usage also?

At least, I think, the documentation should warn, tell and
explain about this big difference for users used to the
BSD-mail program. I have not found anything about it.
---
Peter Svanberg, NADA, KTH		    Email: [email-masked]
Dept of Num An & CS,
Royal Inst of Tech			    Phone: +46 8 790 71 40
S-100 44  Stockholm, SWEDEN		    Fax:   +46 8 790 09 30

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From: David L Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 08:22:44 -0800 (PST)

You can get this behavior by linking the mbox driver into Pine.  This 
is the Berkeley format (bezerk) driver with silent moving added.  

|\ |  |\/|  David L. Miller    [email-masked]  (206) 685-6240
|/ |_ |  |  Software Engineer, Pine Development Team   (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing
4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA

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From: Peter Svanberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 20:00:20 +0100

Quoting:  David L Miller <[email-masked]>
> is the Berkeley format (bezerk) driver with silent moving added.  

Thanks - works fine!

BTW, I saw there has been some progress to the MH driver - any
change in the will-maybe-work-some-day plans I was told before?
---
Peter Svanberg, Nada, KTH

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 11:27:46 -0800 (PST)

>    mail is handled in _one_ file, which is not in

This is correct with unmodified Pine.

If you modify the .../pine/pine.c file to have a line of
	mail_link (&mboxdriver);
before the mail_link() call for bezerkdriver (you may also have to add 
mboxdriver in the list of driver externals elsewhere), then you will get 
that behavior.

mbox is like tenex, but it uses the /usr/spool/mail format.

>    is the default: /usr/spool/mail contents is silently moved to

This is correct.

> 3) Is the silently-moving model considered bad for _all_ users?

Some people find it objectionable, which is why mboxdriver is normally 
turned off.

>    not allow it in BSD-format usage also?

This model is the only model meaningful for Tenex.  But, because some 
people find mail.txt to be a dangerous name, it was changed to mail.TxT.

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From: Paul Holbrook <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 20:40:58 -0500 (EST)

Mark -- 

We've used the mbox driver in Pine here at CICNet for more than a year.  
Any chance that we can put it under a Makefile switch so we don't have to 
modify the code for every release we get?

J. Paul Holbrook
CICNet Technical Services Manager
[email-masked]    (313) 998-7680

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 20:56:37 -0800 (PST)

> modify the code for every release we get?

Basically, some help is on the way.  c-client is now configurable at the 
makefile level for additional drivers.  I don't think that Pine 3.88 will 
use this new capability, but a future version of Pine will have it available.