101 lines
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101 lines
4.2 KiB
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<TITLE> E-Mail and Linux </TITLE>
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<H1> E-Mail and Linux</H1>
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by <B>Edward Cameron</B>
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<A HREF="mailto: ecame119@ecity.net"><ecame119@ecity.net></A>
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Copyright (c) 1996<BR>
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<H5>Published in Issue #6 of the Linux Gazette</H5>
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<HR>
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<P>
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Rec'd a copy of Eudora Lite mail reader for Windoze that other day. (a promo; I get a lot junk mail and sometimes I get lucky)
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Being curious, I booted Windoze and installed the demo and played around with it for about an hour. Jotted down some notes.
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Composed and sent a few e-mail messages.
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<P>
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Fed up with the ugly Windoze screen, I rebooted Linux; with sanity restored I decided to see if I could
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get PINE to automatically retrieve mail from my ISP.
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Before I started working on this, I had to telnet to ecity.net and use Pine on their end in order to read and send
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email. (IDT uses Linux boxes as Internet servers!) This endeaver took two weeks of off and on again effort. Finally
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I found all the pieces of information and programs that would allow me to retrieve e-mail from a POP2/3 server
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and place it into a user directory on my machine. Along the way I've messed up my system to the point I can't
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use PERL now. (don't ask...!)
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<P>
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What you need: POPCLIENT and PINE. I'm gonna harp about the PINE program as I feel it's the finest mail reader I've seen for
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Linux. Nothing in the X window series of mail readers come close and what there is is not worth the effort to write about.
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<P>
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POPCLIENT can be found on any sunsite mirror in Mail/readers. (I have a quarterly CDROM and got the program from there)
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Pine is provided with nearly every Linux distribution.
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There are a few 'popper' programs as well. Some I tried didn't compile and those that relied on Perl didn't work
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for me either. POPCLIENT works and is just what I was looking for.
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<P>
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Create a script file as follows:
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<P>
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#!/bin/sh
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<PRE>
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echo "
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Checking for mail.....
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"
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popclient -3 -u <I>your ISP username here</I> <I>your ISP here</I> -o $HOME/mail/inbox
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echo "
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done....
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"
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</PRE>
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for example you might have:
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<CENTER> popclient -3 -u jblow sunsite.unc.edu -o $HOME/mail/inbox </CENTER>
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<P>
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You will have to provide your password every time you run the above script, but that is safer than having a clear copy
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of it sitting around for some hacker to discover. If you have a permanent ppp connection, then you can create a cron job entry for the above
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and set a time to kick the script file off, say every day or hour or whatever to, automatically get your mail.
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<P>
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<H3> Setting up the services file for POP</H3>
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<P>
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I'm taking a step back here as I haven't mentioned two important steps. You must have an entry in the <I>services</I> file
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in order to connect to the SMTP server. The entry is detailed in the docs for popclient; I'm using a line like this:
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<P>
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<PRE> pop-3 110/tcp.</PRE> 110 is the port number for a POP3 server. Use 109 if your STMP server is a POP 2.
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<P>
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<H3> Setting up Pine</H3>
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Pine needs to be set up. Enter Pine and choose 'S' then 'C'. Move the cursor down to the <B>in-box path</B> entry. You need to
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tell Pine the complete path and file name for incomming mail messages. I use
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<P> <I>/ecame119/mail/inbox</I>.
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<P> Exit setup and Pine.
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CWD to the directory you entered above and <I>touch</I> the file <B>inbox</B> into being. "chmod 600 inbox" and you're all set.
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<P>
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That's it folks. Automatic retrieval of e-mail under Linux. And these programs are free.
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Edura is selling for around US$50.00.
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<HR>
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<H3>Lingo Used:</H3>
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<P>
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I'd like to explain some of the terms I've sprinkled in the above.
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<P>
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SMTP: <B>S</B>imple <B>M</B>ail <B>T</B>ransport <B>P</B>rotocol.
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<P>
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POP: <B>P</B>ost <B>O</B>ffice <B>P</B>rotocol.
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<P>
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ISP: <B>I</B>nterNet <B>S</B>ervice <B>P</B>rovider.
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<HR>
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<P>
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There are a few more, but I'll save those for another time. To learn more, grab a book about electronic mail systems and be prepared
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to be confused with all the acronyms, like MTA or MDA and MHS!
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<P>
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<B><I> Ciao for now.</B></I>
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<HR>
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<P>
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Beam me back to the <A HREF="./lg_issue6.html">Linux Gazette</A>, Scotty!
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