Getmail + ypops = Easy Mail

Using information from the following threads:

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26192

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=12781

one can setup a very nice mail system to automatically retrieve messages from remoted services like Yahoo (through ypops) or Hotmail (with maybe MrPostman or httpmail) or plain POP3 mail accounts.

create a directory in your home called .getmail

Code:

---


mkdir ~/.getmail

---

Youll need a getmail script. something like getmailrc-youraccountname
mine is: getmailrc-ypops for my local ypops daemon.

Code:

---



[options]
verbose = 1
delete = 0
message_log = ~/.getmail/log

[retriever]
type = SimplePOP3Retriever
server = localhost
username = <username here>
password = <password here>

[destination]
type = MDA_external
path = /usr/lib/mh/slocal

---

And a run script: ~/getmail/getmail-ypops.sh
This one includes file locking to keep getmail from being started twice.

Code:

---

#!/bin/bash

LOCK=~/.getmail/getmail-ypops-lock
LOG=~/.getmail/getmail-ypops.log

if [ ! -f $LOCK ]; then
  echo "0" >$LOCK
  echo "" >>$LOG ; echo "** ` date ` " >>$LOG
  getmail -d --rcfile getmailrc-ypops >>$LOG
  rm -f $LOCK >/dev/null 2>&1
fi

---

and a crontab to run it from (issue ` crontab -e ` to create)

Code:

---


# m h  dom mon dow  command
*/5 * * * * /home/onemyndseye/.getmail/getmail-ypops.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
*/5 * * * * /home/onemyndseye/scripts/keepalive >/dev/null 2>&1

---

This downloads my mail from Yahoo every 5min. The other script is just a simple keepalive script I use to keep my proxy at work from closing on me...simply uses wget to download googles index page.



now is I issue ' mail ' from a terminal window I can read all of my YahooMail... neat!... ofcoase mutt or kmail can be used if you so wish :)


Hope this helps,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye