Subject: Pine Bug - no ~/Mail directory [was Re: A few things]

From: [email-masked] (VampLestat)
Date: 7 Aug 1994 23:04:02 GMT

And David L Miller <[email-masked]> spake unto the masses:
>On Mon, 25 Jul 1994, Mighty Man wrote:
>> 1) How can I set pine to not create the ~/mail directory, but rather use
>> my ~/Mailbox directory, where I have the saved-messages files?
>
>Setting the "mail-directory" variable in your .pinerc file should take care
>of that. 

I used this potion to set the mail directory to ~/Mail in the global pine
configuration for our system (same used by ELM so people can go back and
forth).

But since this change I've noticed that when a new user cranks up pine for
the first time, it dies on them because it cant find a ~/Mail folder.  I
assume its hard coded into pine to create a ~/mail on start up, but since
for new users there is no ~/Mail, it dies?

Can this be fixed in future versions, so that it reads the variable in the
config file first and create that directory if it doesnt exist?  I assume
there is a hack I can make to the code to tell pine to create and look for
~/Mail instead of ~/mail?

-- 
_O_  Ryan L. Watkins                               [email-masked]
 |   Academic Computing Services CSU Long Beach - Network Support
 |   finger [email-masked] for pgp public key

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From: "Sherry H. Lake" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 09:28:58 -0400 (EDT)

There are two directories you have to change (in the .pinerc file) 
"folder-collections" and "mail-directory".  The mail-directory is where 
postponed and interrupted messages are held.  If you change both of these 
to "Mail", then pine shouldn't create the "~/mail" directory.

-----
Sherry H. Lake			[email-masked]
Electronic Mail Consultant
George Mason University

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From: [email-masked] (Paul Hirose)
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 16:00:50 GMT

>>Setting the "mail-directory" variable in your .pinerc file should take care

This is the variable to change, just make sure you change it properly.

>I used this potion to set the mail directory to ~/Mail in the global pine

Nope.  This isn't quite right.  If you watch carefully when pine tries to
create you directory (and also read the .pine-debug* files) you can tell
what is going on.  You should change this to *just* "Mail".  No "~/" in
front of it.

>for new users there is no ~/Mail, it dies?

Yes, it does die if you set the mail-directory to ~/Mail.  It does not die
when you set it to Mail.  I don't know why but I guess the code is for
it to work in your homedirectory always.  A good hint is if you were to
set the mail-directory to your *full* path (/users/cs/pthirose/Mail in my
case) then when pine tries to create a directory, it tries to create
/users/cs/pthirose/users/cs/pthirose/Mail.  The first part is by default
(I'm guessing) and the "repeated part" is because of what I set my
mail-directory variable to.

>Can this be fixed in future versions, so that it reads the variable in the

Bottom line - it doesn't need to be fixed (although it should, or at least
made better documented.)  What you oguht to try is changing the mail-directory
to just Mail instead of ~/Mail.  To me, I think it's silly and both should
work, but hey.

Hope this helps....
PH

--
  I do not speak for for UC Davis, Academic Computing Services, or anyone else.
  Paul Hirose                                         [email-masked]