Archiving mail passing through

Damian Walker

Quoting Martin Gregorie's message of Friday:

> I don't know about sendmail (I retired frustrated after trying to learn it
> from the O'Reilly book - easily the worst one they sell) and installed
> Postfix instead. I found it easy to install and configure. Generally speaking
> it "just works".

Yes, I'll be exploring other software if sendmail (or my level of
sendmail expertise) isn't up to the job, but if I go down that route, I
ought to think about waiting till I've upgraded the server first.

> The reason I installed it was to automatically archive all incoming and
> outgoing mail. That was easy: just add an "always_bcc foo" directive to
> main.cf and a copy of every inbound and outbound message is sent to foo where
> I use procmail to organize it into mbox files.

This might well work for me. I'd thought about the MTA doing the
filtering, but that isn't really appropriate if it can just copy
everything that comes into the server to an account that has procmail
working.

Thanks to you and Tony for your help.

--
Damian -
Put "sausage" in the subject of email replies to avoid my spam trap.

Gordon Henderson

In article < farp.karoo.net>,
Damian Walker <.uk> wrote:
>Hello there,
>
>I'd like to know if it's possible to archive mail passing through my
>Linux mail server from a specific range of addresses.
>
>The situation is: I write work-related mail on a Psion PDA, which I then
>send through my Linux server on to the wider world. The Psion has a
>sent-mail folder, but has limited memory and no easy way to archive sent
>mail. So currently I BCC every message to a particular address on my
>Linux machine, and let procmail handle the archiving. Apart from when I
>forget, or mistype the archiving email address.
>
>Is there any way sendmail or some other tool can handle this
>automatically? I can persevere with manually BCCing my mail but a more
>automated solution would be better. The Linux box in question is
>running RedHat 7.2 and sendmail 8.11.6.

There is a way to do this in sendmail, but you need to patch the sources
and recompile the sendmail code. Not for the feint of heart, however
I've done it in the past an it works quite well.

You need this bit of code:

There are instructions there on how to install it.

Note that this will log all email going through the server, not just
your own email, but if it's purely for your own use, then it'll do what
you want.

Another way of doing it might be to ssh into the linux box and use a
local MUA there like pine, etc. (which is how I do everything - olde
fashioned, dull and non-blingy, but it works just fine from various
mobile devices, etc.)

Gordon

Gordon Henderson

In article <>,
Martin Gregorie <.for.address> wrote:
>Damian Walker wrote:
>> Hello there,
>>
>> I'd like to know if it's possible to archive mail passing through my
>> Linux mail server from a specific range of addresses.
>>
>> The situation is: I write work-related mail on a Psion PDA, which I then
>> send through my Linux server on to the wider world. The Psion has a
>> sent-mail folder, but has limited memory and no easy way to archive sent
>> mail. So currently I BCC every message to a particular address on my
>> Linux machine, and let procmail handle the archiving. Apart from when I
>> forget, or mistype the archiving email address.
>>
>> Is there any way sendmail or some other tool can handle this
>> automatically? I can persevere with manually BCCing my mail but a more
>> automated solution would be better. The Linux box in question is
>> running RedHat 7.2 and sendmail 8.11.6.
>>
>I don't know about sendmail (I retired frustrated after trying to learn
>it from the O'Reilly book - easily the worst one they sell) and
>installed Postfix instead. I found it easy to install and configure.
>Generally speaking it "just works".

Sendmail was originally for massochists, and the original O'Reilly book,
whilst accurate(ish), was not for the feint of heart. Shame really -
it came out (I have a 1993 1st edition) just as IDE sendmail was being
developed which used a set of m4 macros to greatly simplfy the sendmail.cf
file construction... These days a sendmail configuration file is rarely
more than a dozen lines long, but people have long memorys of files
containing very obscure lines of dollars, hashes, ()'s and seemingly
random characters...

I've been using sendmail for a great number of years now, but can't
remember the last time I actually hand-edited a genuine sendmail.cf
file... (Maybe I just don't do anything terribly exciting these days
though!!!)

Gordon

Mike Civil

In article < farp.karoo.net>,
Damian Walker <.uk> wrote:
>I'd like to know if it's possible to archive mail passing through my
>Linux mail server from a specific range of addresses.
>
>Is there any way sendmail or some other tool can handle this
>automatically? I can persevere with manually BCCing my mail but a more

If you want a sendmail solution then using a sendmail milter could be
one way to go. A quick Google throws up a couple of candidates -
milter-bcc (commercial but possibly cheaper for private individuals)
and synonym (free but looks unmaintained). There may be others or you
could take an existing one and modify it.

Mike

Martin Gregorie

Gordon Henderson wrote:
> In article <>,
> Martin Gregorie <.for.address> wrote:
>> Damian Walker wrote:
>>> Hello there,
>>>
>>> I'd like to know if it's possible to archive mail passing through my
>>> Linux mail server from a specific range of addresses.
>>>
>>> The situation is: I write work-related mail on a Psion PDA, which I then
>>> send through my Linux server on to the wider world. The Psion has a
>>> sent-mail folder, but has limited memory and no easy way to archive sent
>>> mail. So currently I BCC every message to a particular address on my
>>> Linux machine, and let procmail handle the archiving. Apart from when I
>>> forget, or mistype the archiving email address.
>>>
>>> Is there any way sendmail or some other tool can handle this
>>> automatically? I can persevere with manually BCCing my mail but a more
>>> automated solution would be better. The Linux box in question is
>>> running RedHat 7.2 and sendmail 8.11.6.
>>>
>> I don't know about sendmail (I retired frustrated after trying to learn
>> it from the O'Reilly book - easily the worst one they sell) and
>> installed Postfix instead. I found it easy to install and configure.
>> Generally speaking it "just works".
>
> Sendmail was originally for massochists, and the original O'Reilly book,
> whilst accurate(ish), was not for the feint of heart.
>
I'd agree with that, but what really put the kibosh on Sendmail for me
was that blasted book. When I started trying to work through and modify
the Fedora default Sendmail config I found that there were whole
sections of it that weren't described in the book and, IIRC, the book
itself referenced them. I binned it when I moved over to Postfix so
can't tell you which edition it was.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Es***, UK
org |

Tony Houghton

In < farp.karoo.net>
Damian Walker <.uk> wrote:

> Quoting Tony Houghton's message of Friday:
>
> > Anyway, does the Psion support IMAP? You could run a Linux IMAP
> > server and get the Psion to use that for its Sent folder. You might
> > find my own mailmng script (see URL in sig) handy for managing the
> > folder although I wouldn't be surprised if it uses python features
> > too new for the version of Linux you're using.
>
> It does, actually, if I install an upgrade. I'll have to look into
> IMAP as I'm almost entirely ignorant about it. As long as the Psion
> can still work autonomously (i.e. I can still read and write mail
> when not connected) it sounds the most sensible solution.

That could be a problem actually. You'd have to copy stuff to and fro
between IMAP (remote) folders and local ones on the Psion for offline
working. Martin Gregorie's solution of switching to postfix and using
"always_bcc" looks like the best solution on offer so far.

--
TH *

Nix

On 3 Dec 2007, Gordon Henderson told this:
> I've been using sendmail for a great number of years now, but can't
> remember the last time I actually hand-edited a genuine sendmail.cf
> file... (Maybe I just don't do anything terribly exciting these days
> though!!!)

Eric Allman has said that he considers sendmail.cf an object file
and never edits it himself.

--
`The rest is a tale of post and counter-post.' --- Ian Rawlings
describes USENET

Nix

On 3 Dec 2007, Gordon Henderson told this:
> I've been using sendmail for a great number of years now, but can't
> remember the last time I actually hand-edited a genuine sendmail.cf
> file... (Maybe I just don't do anything terribly exciting these days
> though!!!)

Eric Allman has said that he considers sendmail.cf an object file
and never edits it himself.

--
`The rest is a tale of post and counter-post.' --- Ian Rawlings
describes USENET

Damian Walker

Quoting Gordon Henderson's message of Monday:

> There is a way to do this in sendmail, but you need to patch the sources
> and recompile the sendmail code. Not for the feint of heart, however
> I've done it in the past an it works quite well.

I'll have to weigh up whether it's less effort than getting into the
habit to BCC messages I write on the PDA...

> You need this bit of code:

Thanks, added to my download queue.

> Another way of doing it might be to ssh into the linux box and use a
> local MUA there like pine, etc. (which is how I do everything - olde
> fashioned, dull and non-blingy, but it works just fine from various
> mobile devices, etc.)

Unfortunately that solution doesn't help as I'm often away from any sort
of connectivity while I'm reading and replying to my mail. Being able
to work while on the bus or in other "dead time" places offsets the
inconvenience of the PDA's simplified software.

--
Damian -
Put "sausage" in the subject of email replies to avoid my spam trap.

Damian Walker

Quoting Tony Houghton's message of Monday:

> That could be a problem actually. You'd have to copy stuff to and fro
> between IMAP (remote) folders and local ones on the Psion for offline
> working.

That's the way the Psion generally works for POP3, you open the mailbox,
select and download messages from a list of header lines, read and
write, and upload messages from the outbox. From what I understand, the
IMAP add-on uses the same interface but just a different transport
mechanism. I fear it might therefore also use a local (on the Psion)
sent folder, but I'll have to install it and play before I'm sure.

> Martin Gregorie's solution of switching to postfix and using
> "always_bcc" looks like the best solution on offer so far.

That's looking like the case to me too. Though I'm getting used to
adding my sent mail archiving address to the BCC field now, I haven't
mistyped it for days.

--
Damian -
Put "sausage" in the subject of email replies to avoid my spam trap.