Subject: logging mailbox access

From: Laurie Cuthbert <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 20:45:47 +0000 (GMT)

Now that we have moved student email in the department away from pop to 
imap-based mailers (mainly pine) we would like to be able to log when 
they have accessed the mailbox. This is purely so we can see which 
students have NOT read their mail for some time as it may be a warning 
that they are having some sort of problems and maybe dropping out - early 
warning can often solve the problem.

With pop we could do that by checking the date stamp on the lock file but 
there seems no obvious way with imapd. Have I missed something (obvious) ?

Regards

Laurie Cuthbert

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 13:24:02 -0800 (PST)

> there seems no obvious way with imapd. Have I missed something (obvious) ?

Since you're just interested in last access and not in any access telemetry,
have you considered using the file access time?

Another possibility is to modify the server_login() routine in imap/c-
client/os_???.c to write a timestamp of your choosing; that way, you'll be
able to discriminate inactive users specifically.

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From: Kari Sutela <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 08:47:52 +0200

> there seems no obvious way with imapd. Have I missed something (obvious) ?

Just check the access time on their mailbox file (for example, "ls -lu 
/var/spool/mail/user" if your mailboxes are located in /var/spool/mail).  
This is what finger does.

/KS