Subject: Problems with Procmail and NeXTSTEP

From: Aaron Herskowitz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 95 10:28:38 -0500

I installed procmail v3.10 on my NeXTstation running NeXTSTEP 3.2  
about one month ago.  I am not sure if my problem is with the  
procmail configuration, or maybe more specifically procmail running  
on NeXTSTEP needs some special flags set which I just didn't realize.

I am the only user who uses procmail currently (aside from my mailing  
list account which I administer), and I use the .forward method  
currently.  I installed procmail so that I could run several mailing  
lists via Smartlist.

My problem is that the program I use to read mail (Mail.app which  
ships with NeXTSTEP and has been *very* reliable for 3 years) got  
confused a few days ago.  I had two e-mail messages blend into one  
(i.e. Mail.app did not recognise the seperation between the  
messages.)  

So when I went to read my mail the that morning, one message was  
contained within another: I had one heading in my unread mail, but  
when I selected the message, it contained that message and the next  
message in my mailbox!  

The first message (the one that the heading appeared in my unread  
mail) was blank (no content, just the header.)  The second message  
was a long one (a digest from a mailing list I subscribe.)

Below is the output from my logfile - I had VERBOSE=on in my  
.procmailrc.  I checked the size of the messages, and they equal the  
sizes listed in the logfile so no mail was lost.

I would appreciate any help from you procmail-gurus.  Also, I would  
like to hear from other NeXTSTEP users to see if there is somethings  
that I should watch for or configure differently than the standard  
set-up.  

Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Aaron

>From [email-masked]  Tue Feb 14 19:41:02 1995
 Subject: Re: Trading Up Old UPS for Smart-UPS Offer
  Folder: /Users/aaron/Mail/aaron                                            
762
procmail: Notified comsat: "aaron@0:/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Unlocking "/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Assigning "LOCKFILE=/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Locking "/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Locking "/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Opening "/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock
procmail: [6279] Tue Feb 14 19:42:00 1995
procmail: Unlocking "/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron.lock"
>From [email-masked]  Tue Feb 14 19:41:59 1995
 Subject:  NOVELL Index - 13 Feb 1995
  Folder: /Users/aaron/Mail/aaron                                           
4381
procmail: Notified comsat: "aaron@762:/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Unlocking "/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Assigning "LOCKFILE=/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Locking "/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Locking "/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Opening "/Users/aaron/Mail/aaron"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock
procmail: Assigning "LOCKFILE=/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: Locking "/Users/aaron/.lockmail"
procmail: [6356] Tue Feb 14 22:42:14 1995

---

From: the mole <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 17:07:24 -0800

Hi!

>>>>> "aaron" == Aaron Herskowitz <[email-masked]> writes:

    aaron> I installed procmail v3.10 on my NeXTstation running
    aaron> NeXTSTEP 3.2 about one month ago.  I am not sure if my
    aaron> problem is with the procmail configuration, or maybe more
    aaron> specifically procmail running on NeXTSTEP needs some
    aaron> special flags set which I just didn't realize.

    aaron> My problem is that the program I use to read mail (Mail.app
    aaron> which ships with NeXTSTEP and has been *very* reliable for
    aaron> 3 years) got confused a few days ago.  I had two e-mail
    aaron> messages blend into one (i.e. Mail.app did not recognise
    aaron> the seperation between the messages.)

I experienced the same behavior with mail sent from a NEXTSTEP
environment and I think it has nothing to do with procmail because it
happened to unsorted mail in my INBOX. Are you using the newest
version of Mail.app? Is NEXTSTEP 3.2 the most recent one? If both is
the case, try using older versions, I think I heard rumors that the
most recent versions have problems with proper mail processing. Sadly
there won't be support for NEXTSTEP on black boxes anymore.

hth,

tm
--
      /               . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
__  __/   __  __     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  the mole
   /     /   /   /  . . . . . . . . . . . .  [email-masked]
__/   __/ __/ __/  . . . . . . . . http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~markusg/

---

From: Aaron Herskowitz <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 95 21:50:56 -0500

After further investigation, I have found that my problem rests in  
how the NeXTSTEP's Mail.app handles its mail (i.e. it expects all  
messages to have a body [sort of stupid if you ask me - very unlike  
NeXT to make that type of mistake]).  It seems that a null message  
causes Mail.app to choke.

I have tested this on NeXTSTEP 3.2 for black hardware (the version I  
am currently running) and asking a friend to test it for NeXTSTEP 3.3  
(the most recent version) for both motorola and intel platforms.  If  
anyone is interested in the results, please e-mail me directly.

Thanks to [email-masked] and [email-masked] for their  
input and suggestions.

Aaron
---
Aaron Herskowitz, Director of Mgt Info Sys, dirigiste Inv Mgt Co
USPS: 6480 Rockside Woods Blvd So, Suite 380, Cleve., OH 44131, USA
E-Mail: [email-masked]  [NeXTmail & MIME Welcomed]
Voice: 216.573.0900  Fax: 216.573.1430