NAME

mhook − MH receive−mail hooks

SYNOPSIS

$HOME/.maildelivery
 

/usr/new/lib/mh/rcvdist ­[−form formfile] ­[switches for postproc] address ...  ­[−help]
 

/usr/new/lib/mh/rcvpack file ­[−help]
 

/usr/new/lib/mh/rcvtty ­[command] ­[−form formatfile] ­[−format string] ­[−bell] ­[−nobell] ­[−newline] ­[−nonewline] ­[−biff] ­[−help]

DESCRIPTION

A receive−mail hook is a program that is run whenever you receive a mail message.  You do NOT invoke the hook yourself, rather the hook is invoked on your behalf by SendMail, when you include the line

    “| /usr/new/lib/mh/slocal −user $USER”

in your .forward file in your home directory. 
 
The .maildelivery file, which is an ordinary ASCII file, controls how local delivery is performed.  This file is read by slocal. 
 
The format of each line in the .maildelivery file is
 

field pattern action result string
 
where
 

field:
The name of a field that is to be searched for a pattern. This is any field in the headers of the message that might be present. In addition, the following special fields are also defined:

source: the out−of−band sender information
addr: the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient
default: this matches only if the message hasn’t been delivered yet
∗: this always matches

pattern:
The sequence of characters to match in the specified field. Matching is case−insensitive but not RE−based.
 

action:
The action to take to deliver the message. This is one of
 

file or >:
Append the message to the file named by string.  The standard maildrop delivery process is used.  If the message can be appended to the file, then this action succeeds. 
 
When writing to the file, a new field is added:
 

Delivery−Date: date
 
which indicates the date and time that message was appended to the file.
 

pipe or |:
Pipe the message as the standard input to the command named by string, using the Bourne shell sh (1) to interpret the string.  Prior to giving the string to the shell, it is expanded with the following built−in variables:

$(sender): the return address for the message
$(address): the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient
$(size): the size of the message in bytes
$(reply−to): either the “Reply−To:” or “From:” field of the message
$(info): miscellaneous out−of−band information

 
When a process is invoked, its environment is: the user/group id:s are set to recipient’s id:s; the working directory is the recipient’s directory; the umask is 0077; the process has no /dev/tty; the standard input is set to the message; the standard output and diagnostic output are set to /dev/null; all other file−descriptors are closed; the envariables $USER, $HOME, $SHELL are set appropriately, and no other envariables exist. 
 
The process is given a certain amount of time to execute. If the process does not exit within this limit, the process will be terminated with extreme prejudice. The amount of time is calculated as ((size x 60) + 300) seconds, where size is the number of bytes in the message.
 
The exit status of the process is consulted in determining the success of the action. An exit status of zero means that the action succeeded. Any other exit status (or abnormal termination) means that the action failed.
 
In order to avoid any time limitations, you might implement a process that began by forking.  The parent would return the appropriate value immediately, and the child could continue on, doing whatever it wanted for as long as it wanted.  This approach is somewhat risky if the parent is going to return an exit status of zero.  If the parent is going to return a non−zero exit status, then this approach can lead to quicker delivery into your maildrop. 
 

qpipe or <caret>:
Similar to pipe, but executes the command directly, after built−in variable expansion, without assistance from the shell. 
 

destroy:
This action always succeeds.

result:
Indicates how the action should be performed:
 

A:
Perform the action. If the action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.
 

R:
Perform the action. Regardless of the outcome of the action, the message is not considered delivered.
 

?:
Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered. If the action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.

N:
Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered and the previous action succeeded. If this action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.

 
The file is always read completely, so that several matches can be made and several actions can be taken. The .maildelivery file must be owned either by the user or by root, and must be writable only by the owner.  If the .maildelivery file can not be found, or does not perform an action which delivers the message, then the file /usr/new/lib/mh/maildelivery is read according to the same rules.  This file must be owned by the root and must be writable only by the root.  If this file can not be found or does not perform an action which delivers the message, then standard delivery to the user’s maildrop, /usr/spool/mail/$USER, is performed. 
 
Arguments in the .maildelivery file are separated by white−space or comma.  Since double−quotes are honored, these characters may be included in a single argument by enclosing the entire argument in double−quotes.  A double−quote can be included by preceeding it with a backslash. 
 
To summarize, here’s an example:
 

#fieldpatternactionresultstring
# lines starting with a ’#’ are ignored, as are blank lines
#
# file mail with mmdf2 in the “To:” line into file mmdf2.log
Tommdf2fileAmmdf2.log
# Messages from mmdf pipe to the program err-message-archive
FrommmdfpipeAerr-message-archive
# Anything with the “Sender:” address “uk-mmdf-workers”
# file in mmdf2.log if not filed already
Senderuk-mmdf-workersfile?mmdf2.log
# “To:” unix − put in file unix-news
ToUnix>Aunix-news
# if the address is jpo=mmdf − pipe into mmdf-redist
addrjpo=mmdf|Ammdf-redist
# if the address is jpo=ack − send an acknowledgement copy back
addrjpo=ack|R“resend −r $(reply-to)”
# anything from steve − destroy!
FromstevedestroyA−
# anything not matched yet − put into mailbox
default−>?mailbox
# always run rcvalert
∗−|Rrcvalert

 
Four programs are currently standardly available, rcvdist (redistribute incoming messages to additional recipients), rcvpack (save incoming messages in a packf’d file), and rcvtty (notify user of incoming messages).  The fourth program, rcvstore (1) is described separately.  They all reside in the /usr/new/lib/mh/ directory. 
 
The rcvdist program will resend a copy of the message to all of the addresses listed on its command line.  It uses the format string facility described in mh−format (5). 
 
The rcvpack program will append a copy of the message to the file listed on its command line.  Its use is obsoleted by the .maildelivery. 
 
The rcvtty program executes the named file with the message as its standard input, and writes the resulting output on your terminal.  If no file is specified, or is bogus, etc., then rcvtty will instead write a one−line scan listing.  Either the ‘−form formatfile’ or ‘−format string’ option may be used to override the default output format (see mh−format (5)).  A newline is output before the message output, and the terminal bell is rung after the output.  The ‘−nonewline’ and ‘−nobell’ options will inhibit these functions.  Normally, rcvtty obeys write permission as granted by mesg (1).  With the ‘−biff’ option, rcvtty will obey the notification status set by biff (1).  If the terminal access daemon (TTYD) is available on your system, then rcvtty will give its output to the daemon for output instead of writing on the user’s terminal.  ^/usr/new/lib/mh/mtstailor~^tailor file ^$HOME/.maildelivery~^The file controlling local delivery ^/usr/new/lib/mh/maildelivery~^Rather than the standard file rcvstore (1), mh−format(5) None For compatibility with older versions of MH, if slocal can’t find the user’s .maildelivery file, it will attempt to execute an old−style rcvmail hook in the user’s $HOME directory.  In particular, it will first attempt to execute
 

.mh_receive file maildrop directory user
 
failing that it will attempt to execute
 

$HOME/bin/rcvmail user file sender
 
before giving up and writing to the user’s maildrop.
 
In addition, whenever a hook or process is invoked, file−descriptor three (3) is set to the message in addition to the standard input.
 
Only two return codes are meaningful, others should be.
 

NEWS-OSRelease 4.1C