Subject: I have new mail (I dont)

From: "G. Harney" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 15:46:57 -0500

whenever i send a message to anybody in pine and then exit, my shell (?)
tells me ;

You have new mail in /usr/mail/gharney

when in fact the user that I just sent the mail to should be getting that 
message, not me.   :)  

Does pine remove and then recreate the system mailbox from the copy it
uses (and modifies) while you are reading mail, appending any new mail
which may have come in?  If so this may explain it, since then bash
sees a completely new file, and could be excused for thinking that it
was all new mail.

Suggestions?
Thanks,
Giles
[email-masked]

---

From: Sven Guckes <[email-masked]>
Date: 8 Jan 1996 10:06:50 GMT

"G. Harney" <[email-masked]> writes:
>tells me ; "You have new mail in /usr/mail/gharney" when in fact the user
>that I just sent the mail to should be getting that message, not me.

Well, what do you expect when you send the mail "to anybody *in* Pine"?
Maybe sending mail *out* helps.  ;-)

>Does pine remove and then recreate the system mailbox from the copy it uses
>(and modifies) while you are reading mail, appending any new mail which may
>have come in?

Yes, new mail is appended to your mailbox (file).
That's why it is called a mailbox, see?

>If so this may explain it, since then bash sees a completely new file,
>and could be excused for thinking that it was all new mail.

No, your shell does not see a new file, but it notices that time stamp
(and the size) of your mailbox (as given by $MAIL) has changed.

Sven