Subject: procmail - mail processing package v3.03 has been released

From: [email-masked] (Stephen R. van den Berg)
Date: 8 Jul 1994 18:40:18 GMT

[ It is currently available from comp.sources.misc, volume 43.
  There have been a considerable amount of changes since v2.91, for details
  look in the HISTORY file inside the package. ]

The procmail mail processing program. (v3.03 1994/06/30)

Can be used to create mail-servers, mailing lists, sort your incoming mail
into separate folders/files (real convenient when subscribing to one or more
mailing lists or for prioritising your mail), preprocess your mail, start
any programs upon mail arrival (e.g. to generate different chimes on your
workstation for different types of mail) or selectively forward certain
incoming mail automatically to someone.

Procmail can be used:
	- and installed by an unprivileged user (for himself only).
	- as a drop in replacement for the local delivery agent /bin/mail
	  (with biff/comsat support).
	- as a general mailfilter for whole groups of messages (e.g. when
	  called from within sendmail.cf rules).

The accompanying formail program enables you to generate autoreplies, split up
digests/mailboxes into the original messages, do some very simple
header-munging/extraction, or force mail into mail-format (with leading From
line).

 ----------------------
A recent version can be picked up at various comp.sources.misc archives.
The latest version can be obtained directly from the ftp-archive at:

	ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.225.3)

as (g)zipped tar file:	   /pub/packages/procmail/procmail.tar.gz	<160KB
as compressed tar file:	   /pub/packages/procmail/procmail.tar.Z	<224KB
 ----------------------

Feature summary for procmail:
	+ It's less filling (i.e. small)
	+ Very easy to install (rated PG6 :-)
	+ Simple to maintain and configure because
	  all you need is actually only ONE executable (procmail)
	  and ONE configuration file (.procmailrc)
	+ Is event driven (i.e. gets invoked automagically when mail arrives)
	+ Does not use *any* temporary files
	+ Uses standard egrep regular expressions
	+ It poses a very low impact on your system's resources
	  (it's 1.4 times faster than the average /bin/mail in user-cpu
	   time)
	+ Allows for very-easy-to-use yes-no decisions on where the mail
	  should go (can take the size of the mail into consideration)
	+ Also allows for neural-net-type weighted scoring of mails
	+ Filters, delivers and forwards mail *reliably*
	+ Provides a reliable hook (you might even say anchor :-) for any
	  programs or shell scripts you may wish to start upon mail arrival
	+ Performs heroically under even the worst conditions
	  (file system full, out of swap space, process table full,
	  file table full, missing support files, unavailable executables,
	  denied permissions) and tries to deliver the mail somehow anyway
	+ Absolutely undeliverable mail (after trying every trick in the book)
	  will bounce back to the sender (or not, your choice)
	+ Is one of the few mailers to perform reliable mailbox locking across
	  NFS as well (DON'T use NFS mounted mailboxes WITHOUT installing
	  procmail; you may lose valuable mail one day)
	+ Supports four mailfolder standards: single file folders (standard
	  and nonstandard VNIX format), directory folders that contain one file
	  per message, or the similar MH directory folders (numbered files)
	+ Variable assignment and substitution is an extremely complete subset
	  of the standard /bin/sh syntax
	+ Provides a mail log file, which logs all mail arrival, shows
	  in summary whence it came, what it was about, where it went (what
	  folder) and how long (in bytes) it was
	+ Uses this log file to display a wide range of diagnostic and error
	  messages (if something went wrong)
	+ Does not impose *any* limits on line lengths, mail length (as long
	  as memory permits), or the use of any character (any 8-bit character,
	  including '\0' is allowed) in the mail
	+ It has man pages (boy, does *it* have man pages)
	+ Procmail can be used as a local delivery agent with comsat/biff
	  support (*fully* downwards compatible with /bin/mail); in which case
	  it can heal your system mailbox, if something messes up the
	  permissions
	+ Secure system mailbox handling (contrary to several well known
	  /bin/mail implementations)
	+ Provides for a controlled execution of programs and scripts from
	  the aliases file (i.e. under defined user ids)
	+ Allows you to painlessly shift the system mailboxes into the
	  user's home directories
	+ It runs on virtually all (old and future) operating systems which
	  names start with a 'U' or end in an 'X' :-) (i.e. extremely portable
	  code; POSIX, ANSI C and K&R conforming)
	+ Is clock skew immune (e.g. in the case of NFS mounted mailboxes)
	+ Can be used as a general mailfilter for whole groups of messages
	  (e.g. when called from within sendmail.cf rules).
	+ Works with (among others?) sendmail, smail, MMDF and mailsurr

Feature summary for formail:
	+ Can generate auto-reply headers
	+ Can convert mail into standard mailbox format (so that you can
	  process it with standard mail programs)
	+ Can split up mailboxes into the individual messages
	+ Can split up digests into the individual messages
	+ Can split up saved articles into the individual articles
	+ Can do simple header munging/extraction
	+ Can extract messages from mailboxes
	+ Can recognise duplicate messages

Feature summary for lockfile:
	+ Provides NFS-secure lockfiles to shell script programmers
	+ Gives normal users the ability to lock their system mailbox,
	  regardless of the permissions on the mail-spool directory
----------------------
-- 
Sincerely,                                  [email-masked]
           Stephen R. van den Berg (AKA BuGless).

Time is nature's way of making sure everything doesn't happen at once.