Subject: Re: after a failed POP attempt

From: [email-masked] (Jie Yuan)
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 07:19:43 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
Michael <[email-masked]> wrote:
> : We ran into a situation when we tried to access emails from Pine after
> : POP client failed to fetch them.  In Pine, we saw nothing in the INBOX. 
> : We then checked the file /usr/mail/userid.  It has a size of zero.  At
> : the same time, there is a file /usr/mail/.userid.pop which has a size of
> : less than 100k.  Is there a way of accessing this file in Pine?  Here I
> : am referring Unix Pine in direct login mode.  The POP3 server is from U. 
> : of W., so is the IMAP2.  Pine is 3.95.  Thanks! 
> 
> If I am not mistaken, from shell...
> 
> cd /usr/mail/                                = Change to mail directory.
> 
> ls -l /usr/mail/userid /usr/mail/.userid*    = Check status of mail box.
> 
> cat /usr/mail/.userid.pop >>/usr/mail/userid = Copy backup file to mail 
>                                                box.
> 
> cp /dev/null /usr/mail/.userid.pop           = Clean out POP backup.
> 
> This should fix the inbox that the POP client failed to restore. If I have
> missed the point completely, sorry.

Great answer!

May I ask another question?  Are the files /usr/mail/userid and
/usr/mail/.userid.pop in the same format?  I have to assume that they are
according to your answer.  This is what I missed.  Had I known they are
the same, I might have thought of copying it over ... :-)

Cheers!

Jie

-- 
-- Jie Yuan - Pharmacology & Cell Biophysics - U. Cincinnati --
-- POBox 670575, 231 Bethesda Av., Cincinnati, OH 45267-0575 --
-- [email-masked] -  www.uc.edu/~yuanj  - using NewsWatcher --

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From: Michael <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 18:41:14 -0800

Hi Jie,

On 24 Mar 1997, Jie Yuan wrote:

C-ya,

Michael ([email-masked])

Press CTRL + L-AMIGA + R-AMIGA to continue...

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From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 02:45:41 +0100 (CET)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

  >: the same time, there is a file /usr/mail/.userid.pop which has a size
  >: of less than 100k. Is there a way of accessing this file in Pine? Here
  >: I am referring Unix Pine in direct login mode. The POP3 server is from
  >: U. of W., so is the IMAP2. Pine is 3.95. Thanks!

  >cp /dev/null /usr/mail/.userid.pop           = Clean out POP backup.

Well, afaik you shouldn't be able to mess with the inbox as a user, but

	mv /usr/mail/.userid.pop ~/foo.mail 

might be a "cleaner" solution, anyway.

	cp /dev/null /usr/mail/.userid.pop 

will copy /dev/null to /usr/mail/.userid.pop. Not that it would work, 
though :-)

	more ~/foo.mail 

will let you read the file. (Hey, Lea, I didn't say "less"... >:-> )

Later,
Robin

- -----
Robin S. Socha,
Political Science Dept., Bonn University, Bonn
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To get my pgp public key, send an e-mail with the subject "get pgp-key"

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From: Michael <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 22:05:04 -0800 (PST)

Hi Robin,

On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Robin S Socha wrote:

: >cd /usr/mail/                                = Change to mail directory.
: >ls -l /usr/mail/userid /usr/mail/.userid*    = Check status of mail box.
: >cat /usr/mail/.userid.pop >>/usr/mail/userid = Copy backup file to mail
: >                                               box.
: >cp /dev/null /usr/mail/.userid.pop           = Clean out POP backup.
: 
: Well, afaik you shouldn't be able to mess with the inbox as a user, but

I don't see why not, if you have a program like Eudora crash, how else 
would you restore you inbox when your not connected by PPP?
        
I offered the advice, if anything, you have misdirected this E-Mail. It    
should have been sent to Jie Yuan.

: 	mv /usr/mail/.userid.pop ~/foo.mail 
: 
: might be a "cleaner" solution, anyway.

The mail was not in his home directory, but instead in /usr/mail/. I don't
see what is wrong with repairing the problem where the problem was located.

: 	cp /dev/null /usr/mail/.userid.pop 
: 
: will copy /dev/null to /usr/mail/.userid.pop. Not that it would work, 
: though :-)

The point was to clean the pop mail inbox after it contents was put back
where it belonged. 

: 	more ~/foo.mail 
: 
: will let you read the file. (Hey, Lea, I didn't say "less"... >:-> )

Again, check the original message, this is not the location that the
original poster said it was located.

C-ya,