2 .\" @(#)$Id: slocal.rf,v 1.15 1992/10/28 16:53:03 jromine Exp $
5 slocal \- special local mail delivery
7 @(MHETCPATH)/slocal \%[address\ info\ sender]
17 .\" \%[\-home\ homedir]
19 \%[\-maildelivery\ deliveryfile]
20 \%[\-verbose] \%[\-noverbose]
25 \fISlocal\fP is a program designed to allow you to have
26 your inbound mail processed according to a complex
27 set of selection criteria.
28 You do not normally invoke \fIslocal\fP yourself,
29 rather \fIslocal\fP is invoked on your behalf by your system's
30 Message Transfer Agent.
33 criteria used by \fIslocal\fP
34 is specified in the file \fI\&.maildelivery\fP
35 in the user's home directory. The format of this file
38 The message delivery address and message sender are
39 determined from the Message Transfer Agent
40 envelope information, if possible. Under \fISendMail\fP,
41 the sender will obtained from the UUCP \*(lqFrom\ \*(rq
42 line, if present. The user may override these values
43 with command line arguments, or arguments to
44 the `\-addr' and `\-sender' switches.
46 The message is normally read from the standard input.
47 The `\-file' switch sets the name of the file from which
48 the message should be read, instead of reading stdin.
49 The `\-user' switch tells \fIslocal\fP
50 the name of the user for whom it is delivering mail.
51 The `\-mailbox' switch tells \fIslocal\fP the name
52 of the user's maildrop file.
54 The `\-info' switch may be used to pass an arbitrary
55 argument to sub-processes which \fIslocal\fP may
56 invoke on your behalf.
57 The `\-verbose' switch causes \fIslocal\fP
58 to give information on stdout about its progress.
59 The `\-debug' switch produces more verbose debugging output on stderr.
61 .Uh "Message Transfer Agents"
62 If your MTA is \fISendMail\fP,
63 you should include the line
67 \*(lq|\ @(MHETCPATH)/slocal\ \-user\ username\*(rq
71 in your \&.forward file in your home directory.
72 This will cause \fISendMail\fP to invoke \fIslocal\fP on your behalf.
74 If your MTA is \fIMMDF-I\fP,
75 you should (symbolically) link @(MHETCPATH)/slocal to the file
76 bin/rcvmail in your home directory.
77 This will cause \fIMMDF-I\fP to invoke \fIslocal\fP on your behalf
78 with the correct \*(lq\fIaddress\ info\ sender\fP\*(rq arguments.
80 If your MTA is \fIMMDF-II\fP,
81 then you should not use \fIslocal\fP.
82 An equivalent functionality is already provided by \fIMMDF-II\fP;
83 see maildelivery(5) for details.
85 .Uh "The Maildelivery File"
87 The \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file
88 controls how local delivery is performed.
89 Each line of this file
90 consists of five fields, separated by white-space or comma.
91 Since double-quotes are honored,
92 these characters may be included in a single argument by enclosing the
93 entire argument in double-quotes.
94 A double-quote can be included by preceding it with a backslash.
95 Lines beginning with `#' are ignored.
96 The format of each line in the \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file is:
99 \fBheader pattern action result string\fR
105 The name of a header field that is to be searched for a pattern.
106 This is any field in the headers of the message that might be present.
107 The following special fields are also defined:
112 \fIsource\fR the out-of-band sender information
114 \fIaddr\fR the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient
116 \fIdefault\fR this matches \fIonly\fR if the message hasn't been delivered yet
118 \fI*\fR this always matches
125 of characters to match in the specified header field.
126 Matching is case-insensitive, but does not use regular expressions.
131 The action to take to deliver the message:
136 \fIdestroy\fR This action always succeeds.
139 \fIfile\fR or > Append
140 the message to the file named by \fBstring\fR.
141 The message is appended to the file in the maildrop
142 format which is used by your message transport system.
143 If the message can be appended to the file,
144 then this action succeeds.
145 When writing to the file,
146 a \*(lqDelivery\-Date:\ date\*(rq header is added
147 which indicates the date and time that message was appended to the file.
152 but always appends the message using the format used by \fIpackf\fR
153 (the MMDF mailbox format).
157 the message as the standard input to the command named by \fBstring\fR,
158 using the Bourne shell \fIsh\fR(1) to interpret the string.
159 Prior to giving the string to the shell,
160 it is expanded with the following built-in variables:
165 $(sender) the out-of-band sender information
167 $(address) the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient
169 $(size) the size of the message in bytes
171 $(reply\-to) either the \*(lqReply\-To:\*(rq or \*(lqFrom:\*(rq field
174 $(info) the out-of-band information specified
179 \fI<caret>\fR Similar to \fIpipe\fR,
180 but executes the command directly,
181 after built-in variable expansion,
182 without assistance from the shell.
183 This action can be used to avoid quoting special characters
184 which your shell might interpret.
190 Indicates how the action should be performed:
195 \fIA\fR Perform the action.
196 If the action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.
199 \fIR\fR Perform the action.
200 Regardless of the outcome of the action,
201 the message is not considered delivered.
205 the action only if the message has not been delivered.
206 If the action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.
210 the action only if the message has not been delivered
211 and the previous action succeeded.
212 If this action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.
216 To summarize, here's an example:
220 .ta \w'default 'u +\w'mh-workersxx 'uC +\w'destroy 'uC +\w'result 'u
221 #\fIfield\fR \fIpattern\fR \fIaction\fR \fIresult\fR \fIstring\fR
222 # lines starting with a '#' are ignored, as are blank lines
224 # file mail with mmdf2 in the \*(lqTo:\*(rq line into file mmdf2.log
225 \fITo mmdf2 file A mmdf2.log\fP
226 # Messages from mmdf pipe to the program err-message-archive
227 \fIFrom mmdf pipe A /bin/err-message-archive\fP
228 # Anything with the \*(lqSender:\*(rq address \*(lqmh-workers\*(rq
229 # file in mh.log if not filed already
230 \fISender mh-workers file ? mh.log\fP
231 # \*(lqTo:\*(rq unix \- put in file unix-news
232 \fITo Unix > A unix-news\fP
233 .\" # if the address is jpo=mmdf \- pipe into mmdf-redist
234 .\" \fIaddr jpo=mmdf | A mmdf-redist\fP
235 # if the address is jpo=ack \- send an acknowledgement copy back
236 \fIaddr jpo=ack \fP|\fI R \*(lq/bin/resend\0\-r\0$(reply-to)\*(rq\fP
237 # anything from steve \- destroy!
238 \fIFrom steve destroy A \-\fP
239 # anything not matched yet \- put into mailbox
240 \fIdefault \- > ? mailbox\fP
242 \fI* \- \fP|\fI R /mh/lib/rcvtty\fP
247 The file is always read completely,
248 so that several matches can be made and several actions can be taken.
249 The \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file must be owned either by the user or by root,
250 and must be writable only by the owner.
251 If the \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file cannot be found,
252 or does not perform an action which delivers the message,
253 then the file @(MHETCPATH)/maildelivery is read according to the same rules.
254 This file must be owned by the root and must be writable only by the root.
255 If this file cannot be found
256 or does not perform an action which delivers the message,
257 then standard delivery to the user's maildrop is performed.
259 .Uh "Sub-process environment"
260 When a process is invoked, its environment is:
261 the user/group-ids are set to recipient's ids;
262 the working directory is the recipient's home directory;
264 the process has no /dev/tty;
265 the standard input is set to the message;
266 the standard output and diagnostic output are set to /dev/null;
267 all other file-descriptors are closed;
268 the envariables \fB$USER\fR, \fB$HOME\fR, \fB$SHELL\fR are set
270 and no other envariables exist.
272 The process is given a certain amount of time to execute.
273 If the process does not exit within this limit,
274 the process will be terminated with extreme prejudice.
275 The amount of time is calculated as ((size x 60) + 300) seconds,
276 where size is the number of bytes in the message.
278 The exit status of the process is consulted in determining the success of the
280 An exit status of zero means that the action succeeded.
281 Any other exit status (or abnormal termination) means that the action failed.
283 In order to avoid any time limitations,
284 you might implement a process that began by \fIforking\fR.
285 The parent would return the appropriate value immediately,
286 and the child could continue on,
287 doing whatever it wanted for as long as it wanted.
288 This approach is somewhat risky if the parent is going to return an
290 If the parent is going to return a non-zero exit status,
291 then this approach can lead to quicker delivery into your maildrop.
294 .Uh "Duplicate Message Suppression"
295 \fIslocal\fR is able to detect and supress duplicate messages.
297 create two empty files in your $HOME directory:
298 \&.maildelivery.pag and \&.maildelivery.dir.
299 These are ndbm files which are used to store the Message-IDs of
303 ^@(MHETCPATH)/mtstailor~^MH tailor file
304 ^$HOME/\&.maildelivery~^The file controlling local delivery
305 ^@(MHETCPATH)/maildelivery~^Rather than the standard file
306 ^@(MHDROPLOC)~^The default maildrop
308 rcvstore(1), mhook(1), mh\-format(5)
315 `\-maildelivery \&.maildelivery'
317 `\-mailbox @(MHDROPLOC)'
319 `\-file' defaults to stdin
321 `\-user' defaults to the current user
326 For compatibility with older versions of \fIMH\fR,
327 if \fIslocal\fR can't find the user's \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file,
328 it will attempt to execute an old-style rcvmail hook in the user's $HOME
331 it will first attempt to execute
334 \&.mh\(rureceive file maildrop directory user
336 failing that it will attempt to execute
339 $HOME/bin/rcvmail user file sender
341 before giving up and writing to the user's maildrop.
344 whenever a hook or process is invoked,
345 file-descriptor three (3) is set to the message in addition to the standard
349 \fISlocal\fP is designed to be backward-compatible with the
350 \fImaildelivery\fP facility provided by \fIMMDF-II\fP.
351 Thus, the \fI\&.maildelivery\fP file syntax is limited,
352 as is the functionality of \fIslocal\fP.
354 In addition to an exit status of zero,
355 the \fIMMDF\fR values \fIRP_MOK\fR (32) and \fIRP_OK\fR (9)
356 mean that the message has been fully delivered.
357 Any other non-zero exit status,
358 including abnormal termination,
359 is interpreted as the \fIMMDF\fR value \fIRP_MECH\fR (200),
360 which means \*(lquse an alternate route\*(rq
361 (deliver the message to the maildrop).
363 Only two return codes are meaningful, others should be.
365 \fISlocal\fP is designed to be
366 backwards-compatible with the \fImaildelivery\fP functionality provided
369 Versions of \fIMMDF\fR with the \fImaildelivery\fR mechanism aren't
370 entirely backwards-compatible with earlier versions of \fIMMDF\fP.
371 If you have an \fIMMDF-I\fP old-style hook,
372 the best you can do is to have a one-line
373 \fI\&.maildelivery\fR file:
376 default \- pipe A \*(lqbin/rcvmail $(address) $(info) $(sender)\*(rq