[9fans] getting mail working

[9fans] getting mail working

[Rob Ristroph]

I followed the directions on the wiki:

http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mail_configuration/index.html

I noted that it tells you to edit the smtp.conf file, but it doesn't
mention doing anything to actually start smtp or make it start
automatically on boot.

Setting aside for a moment sending mail to the internet, I can't even
send mail to another user on the same machine.  For example, if as
bootes I try to send email to user rgr, this is what I get:

192.168.1.18# mail rgr
lasdjkasdfdjalk
<escape key followed by control-d>
Mail  from 'bootes'
to 'rgr'
failed with error 'Invalid address'.

save in /mail/box/bootes/dead.letter
102.168.1.18#

I hoped that something explanatory would appear in the log files, but
/sys/log/smtp and /sys/log/smtp.fail are both empty, and /sys/log/auth
has nothing new in it.

I read the man pages for mail, rewrite, and smtp.

Any suggestions ?

--Rob

Re: [9fans] getting mail working

[Rob Ristroph]

>>>>> "matt" == matt  <matt@pc1-nott2-3-cust18.nott.cable.ntl.com> writes:
matt>
matt> sounds like you did copy or bind /lib/mail/rewrite.direct to /lib/mail/rewrite

Copying /mail/lib/rewrite.direct to /mail/lib/rewrite helped; I had
editted my domain in there but had not copied it.  Now if I run faces
as the different users and send mail using the mail command, the right
icons pop up and the mail appears in /mail/fs/mbox/#/ appropriately.

Mail with an @ sign still vanishes into the void, unless what comes
after the @ sign is my own IP address.

A simpler question:  What is the interface you guys use for reading
and sending mail on Plan 9 ?  I had gotten the impression from
somewhere that you could right-click on the icon in faces and it would
send something to acme, which would go into a special mode with a
message listing.  How do you use acme for composing and sending email
?

--Rob

Re: [9fans] getting mail working

[matt]

sounds like you did copy or bind /lib/mail/rewrite.direct to /lib/mail/rewrite

Re: [9fans] getting mail working

[matt]

>Mail with an @ sign still vanishes into the void, unless what comes
>after the @ sign is my own IP address.

are you sure your DNS is working ?

now is the time to check /sys/log/smtp and /sys/log/smtp.fail

for reading : I have two drawterms open
one runs faces & irc on monitor 1

on monitor 0 I have acme and my working windows, I have not even tried to get them to talk to each other


however I can right click in faces and get a nedmail window

presumably you already have
upas/fs
in your profile

to view mail in Acme you also need to have this in your profile :

bind -a /acme/mail/$cputype /bin


then, middle clicking Mail in Acme will open the mail browser

/mail/fs/mbox/  is also worth exploring outside of Mail


I also have /usr/matt/email.eml  which I use as a kind of email scratchpad

I have a few commands relevant to email in there and I send it with one of them :

#  cat /usr/matt/email.eml | grep -v '^#' | upas/send 9fans@cse.psu.ed
#  tail -n 5 /sys/log/smtp
#  tail -n 5 /sys/log/smtp.fail

Re: [9fans] getting mail working

[Charles Forsyth]

>>to view mail in Acme you also need to have this in your profile :
>>bind -a /acme/mail/$cputype /bin

not necessarily.  another method is to start up acme once as
	acme /acme/*/guide
which populates a right-hand column with several groups of acme applications,
each represented by a text file.  each file contains templates for commands, that
can be edited as required before use.  there are corresponding files /acme/*/readme
that give quick summaries of the given application, its conventions, and its templates.
see the section ``Applications and guide files'' near the end of acme(1).
i said `start up acme once' because typically having set up a desired acme environment
you take a snapshot using Dump then have rio's startup script (see rio(1)) run
acme -l acme.dump in an appropriate window.  i give acme a big window
that covers most of the screen and spend most of my time in that.
before shutting down each time i do a Dump, which allows me to pick up
roughly where i left off.

one such guide file is /acme/mail/guide.  inside that is a line
	Mail stored
click with button 2 on the word Mail (thus excluding the `stored' argument)
and it starts up the mail reader.  to read previously saved mail, sweep over that text with button 2
(or select the line with button 1 then click that with button 2), just as usual
when working within acme.  (how would you read another mailbox?)
/acme/mail/readme gives many more instructions.
Of course, if you were reading this within acme you could simply click with
button 3 on the file name in the line above and it would immediately pop open.
(Attachments are handled in a similar way, represented as a cp from /mail/fs/mbox/...
to a default name, allowing you to click on the first name with button 3 to see
the attachment, or use button 2 to execute the cp command, perhaps after editing.)

Re: [9fans] getting mail working

[mirtchov]

[...]
> before shutting down each time i do a Dump, which allows me to pick up
[...]

when using my laptop (and generally everywhere else, since I've gotten
used to it) I like to run a separate acme session for reading mail in
the background, giving me more desktop real estate for code.

the way to do this is to start acme's Mail once and dump the window
into a file, say acmemail.dump.  then create a function in my
profile that runs acme and starts Mail off the dump file.  in my case
it's:

	fn amail { acme -l $home/acmemail.dump }

at this point you can safely cover the Mail acme window with other
stuff -- just right-click on the face of the new mail arriving to
bring it back on top.

one slight issue with this is that you need to start a second 'plumber'
before running acme again, otherwise messages and files will open in
both acme sessions.  this won't cause any trouble for the editor itself...

andrey