[H-GEN] Procmail with users

[Greg Black]

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On 2003-09-25, David Duffy wrote:

> I *have* read the man pages this time. :-)
> I've gotten Procmail to do what I want but...
> 
> I've been using it for a while on two user accounts just fine but
> then I copied the .forward and .procmailrc files into the other
> users home directories, edited them & changed the ownerships.
> Procmail does not seem to run for those users.

This is the kind of problem report that makes help desk people
want to slash their wrists.  What does "does not seem to run"
mean?

Does the mail just get delivered as though there was no procmail
file?  Does the mail bounce?  Does the mail disappear down a
black hole?  What do the logs show?  How do the logs differ from
those of a successful installation?

Have you *checked* the editing you did?  Have you sat down with
somebody else watching and explained exactly what you did?
(This is to get the "aha!" moment when you suddenly realise that
you'd been reading what you wanted to read, not what was really
there.)

Have you checked the access times on the various files to be
sure they are being read?  Have you replaced bits of the system
with little shell scripts that tell you how they are being
called?  Do you really want me to go on with seventy further
steps that you could take?

Cheers, Greg (who has not used procmail for about a trillion
	      years and can't recall all the details off the top
	      of his aging head)

-- 
Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> <http://www.gbch.net/gjb.html>
GPG signed mail preferred; further information in headers.

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