Dear managers,
My original message was:
====================== BEGIN ORIGINAL MESSAGE ====================
Dear managers,
I have a problem with mail notification. I use NFS to export the
/usr/spool/mail directory located on our NFS server. On each
NFS client, the user's MAIL variable is set to /import/mail.
On the NFS server, when biff is set to yes ('biff y'), users are notified
when there receive a new mail. On the NFS clients, notification works only
when using X based notifiers (xbiff, coolmail, tkpostage). Setting biff
to yes or no changes nothing.
Is it possible to be notified by using just 'biff y' on a client ? This
is very usefull when working from a VT100 terminal.
Thanks in advance.
====================== END ORIGINAL MESSAGE ====================
Many thanks to:
Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu>
Jacques Beigbeder <Jacques.Beigbeder_at_ens.fr>
Carlos Sanchez <csanchez_at_cirp.es>
Manfred Korn <korn_at_kph.uni-mainz.de>
The summary of answers follows:
====================== BEGIN SUMMARY ======================
for a host A, the notication works for users working on hosts A only if
mails are received by this host in the /usr/spool/mail directory.
In my configuration, since mails are never delivered in the /usr/spool/mail
directory of clients, notification can not work.
Linking /usr/spool/mail to /import/mail changes nothing because we have a
unique E-mail adresse (user_at_ipno.in2p3.fr) and all mails sent to one
host is physically delivered to the NFS server's /usr/spool/mail.
Jacques Beigbeder told me about rbiff. I have transferted, compiled and
installed it but it does not work yet: I have the message:
root_at_ipnsub<166> /import/divers/bin/comsat
udp bind(): Address already in use
I will send a second SUMMARY when rbiff will work. I am going to send a
message to the author to get help.
====================== END SUMMARY ======================
The original answers follow:
1) ---- From Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu> ----
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 10:00:46 -0700
From: Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu>
To: Christophe DIARRA <diarra_at_ipno.in2p3.fr>
Subject: Re: biff and NFS exported mail directory
If I remember correctly, the mail notification uses /usr/sbin/comsat
to notify the users about new mail. /usr/sbin/comsat looks in
/usr/spool/mail
for mail files, and has no knowledge of the users MAIL environment variable.
If you set /usr/spool/mail (or /var/spool/mail, depending on where /usr/spool
points to) to point to your mail area, that should fix the problem.
In general, it's usually not a good idea to put the mail spool files
somewhere
other than /usr/spool/mail or /var/spool/mail. There are too many programs
that depend on them being in a directory that can be found via those paths.
Mike
2) ---- From Jacques Beigbeder <Jacques.Beigbeder_at_ens.fr> ----
Le principe de biff est le suivant: quand un mail arrive, le sendmail
qui delivre le mail en local envoie une requete TCP au demon
comsat : donc sur la machine ou est "delivre" le mail.
Ainsi ca ne passe a travers NFS...
J'ai entendu parler de rbiff, qui permet d'etendre au reseau.
Ca marche en remplacant 2 binaires: biff et comsat.
Je n'ai jamais teste... et je ne sais si c'est maintenu:
archie ne trouve que 5 references, et des vieilles.
Jacques Beigbeder | Internet: beig_at_ens.fr
Service de Prestations Informatiques |
Ecole normale supirieure |
45 rue d'Ulm | Tel : +33 1 44 32 37 96
F75230 Paris Cedex 05 | Fax : +33 1 44 32 20 80
3) ---- From Carlos Sanchez <csanchez_at_cirp.es> ----
Hello Christophe,
I don't know what is your problem, but in our clients using a DEC Term
we are notificated when biff is set to yes.
Best regards,
Carlos.
--
J. Carlos Sanchez Rivas <csanchez_at_cirp.es>
Responsable de Sistemas Hardware
Centro de I.L.L. Ramon Pi~neiro, GALICIA (SPAIN)
4)---- From Manfred Korn <korn_at_kph.uni-mainz.de> ----
Dear Christoph,
set the MAILPATH environment variable to /import/mail/$USER .
biff should work then.
Another possibility is to make a link from /usr/spool/mail to
your /import/mail - directory.
Yours sincerely,
Manfred Korn
***
Christophe DIARRA
I.P.N ORSAY
91406 ORSAY Cedex
Tel: (16 1) 69 41 65 60
E-mail: diarra_at_ipno.in2p3.fr
***
Received on Thu Jun 27 1996 - 20:15:54 NZST