Subject: Re: your mail

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 1997 03:13:09 -0500 (EST)

HELLO,
I NEED INFO ABOUT THIS END OF THE MONTH SITUATION.

I USED THAT OPTION AND NOW HAVE LOST ALL MY PRIOR E-MAIL
PLEASE TELL ME IS THERE ANY WAY TO RETRIEVE MY MAIL?
ANY AND ALL HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

                                      SINCERELY YOURS,
                                      LORA MCMILLAN

---

From: "Robin S. Socha" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 10:44:25 +0100 (CET)

>HELLO,

YEAH, HELLO YOU TOO!!!

  >I NEED INFO ABOUT THIS END OF THE MONTH SITUATION.
  
It's really good. Money seems to be quite tight, though.  
  
  >PLEASE TELL ME IS THERE ANY WAY TO RETRIEVE MY MAIL?
  
Hmm, you could have it resent. Or you could check your Mail folder for a
file called 
	READ-MESSAGES-jan-1996.gz
e.g. by typing
	locate READ-MESSAGES
if you're on a u*ix system.

You cannot access this file via pine. You can read it, though, using either
a new version of less or zless ( to make sure you have those, type "which
less" "which zless"):
	less READ-MESSAGES-jan-1996.gz
would let you browse through that file using your cursor keys.
If your system doesn't have less, use more or zmore respectively, but ask
your sysadmin to install less.
  
  >                                      SINCERELY YOURS,
					Sounds like a threat when shouted ;-)

Cheers,
Robin

++---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++
   Robin S. Socha	 Political Science Dept.	Tel: +49(0228)22217-8
   Bonner Talweg 56	 Bonn University		Fax: +49(0228)22217-9
   53113 Bonn		 email: [email-masked]
++---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++
       On the package it said: "Requires MS Windows 3.11 or better"  
	       			      ...  so I got myself Linux. 
++---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---++

---

From: Lea <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 09:40:26 -0700 (MST)

> It's really good. Money seems to be quite tight, though.  

At least you still have some.  Count yer blessings.

> if you're on a u*ix system.

Robin is obviously one of those there Unix geek type
individuals my mother warned me about.

gnu-zip a sent-mail file?  Huh?  You have wierd
sysadmins, Robin.  Also, all the versions of Pine ever
loaded on our Unix system here have had saved-sent-mail
folder naming formats of something like
sent-mail-month-year

I don't think I've *ever* seen a 'read-mail-whatever'
foldername.

And yes, you should be able to access any monthly
sent-mail folder from Pine's folder list.  

As to the less is more argument, well, whatever.  Fun
with Stupid Unix tricks, I guess.

BUT!  I COULD BE WRONG!
(sounds rather pathetic when shouted, actually)

Lea

---

From: "Robin S. Socha" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 20:46:44 +0100 (CET)

:On Wed, 05 Feb 1997 [email-masked] shouted:
:HELLO,
:I NEED INFO ABOUT THIS END OF THE MONTH SITUATION.
:
:I USED THAT OPTION AND NOW HAVE LOST ALL MY PRIOR E-MAIL
:PLEASE TELL ME IS THERE ANY WAY TO RETRIEVE MY MAIL?
:ANY AND ALL HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

  >Robin is obviously one of those there Unix geek type individuals my
  >mother warned me about.

/---> flame on
  
Actually, he's one of those there Unix geek type individuals your mother
should have sent you to to learn some computer basics, I guess...  
  
  >gnu-zip a sent-mail file?  Huh?  You have wierd sysadmins, Robin. 

I'm *not* weird!

  >Also, all the versions of Pine ever loaded on our Unix system here have
  >had saved-sent-mail folder naming formats of something like
  >sent-mail-month-year
  
Sure. And if you keep collecting them, you'll be every sysadmin's darling.
And if yall there at UAlberta.CA go ahead and do that, hard-drives will
become pretty expensive soon, due to world-wide shortages caused by
Californian students ignorant of compression tools.
  
  >I don't think I've *ever* seen a 'read-mail-whatever' foldername.

From the .pinerc  
# If set, specifies where already-read messages will be moved upon quitting.
read-message-folder="READ-MESSAGES"
  
  >And yes, you should be able to access any monthly sent-mail folder from
  >Pine's folder list.

If you're <censored> enough to keep them uncompressed - yes. I'll talk to
your sysadmin to give you a quota to stop this &/)(!&%.

  >As to the less is more argument, well, whatever.  Fun with Stupid Unix
  >tricks, I guess.

As opposed to what? 3rd class sarcasm, spiced with some half-digested
knowledge from ages long gone? Or are we trying to make fun of other people
on the grounds of profound experiences with advanced OSs like Windows? Been
hacking away at some fancy Visual Basic ++ lately?

  >BUT!  I COULD BE WRONG!
She said "but".

She also said:
'...But I didn't mean to be brave;  it just sort of happened when I
panicked...'
                                                                 -Piglet

Anyone got any suggestion how those could be sensibly linked to each other?
One that won't get you locked away for a *long* time? 
                                                                
flame off ---->/

Ok, there seems to be a slight misunderstanding. The original post didn't
shout anything about "sent" or "read" messages. It said: HAVE LOST ALL MY
PRIOR E-MAIL, so that could be both. As for the gzip-files, those are in
fact my own divination, used for storing large amounts of mail. I open pine
with a shell script that opens and closes certain folders "on the fly".

So the truth is buried beneath tons of hate-mail:
The mail is stored in folders labelled <somethin>-month-year, be that
sent-mail, read-messages or something your sysadmin made up. Locate should
still work, or
	find -name "<part of filename from .pinere>" -print
invoked from your home dir.
If you your pine moves those folders to a directory different from your
Mail-dir, you won't be able to access those files with pine, except by
setting up a folder collection (see tech-notes).

Can you live with that, Lea?

Cheers,
Robin