Re: [Sheflug] Assorted newbie problems

[nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk]

On  7 May, Harvey Kelly wrote:
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> Having decided to "learn" Linux (whatever the hell that means)

Well done - you'll not regret it! Welcome aboard.

> , I've tried
> using Pine for my mail, Lynx for browsing, and avoided KDE/Gnome like the
> plague.  My queries are: 1) How do you fetchmail?

Fetchmail syntax is real easy and has been explained in another post. There is also
a GUI utility (fetchmailconf) which will config it for you if you are
running X. Linuxconf also has an option for configuring it.

> I can hear all your groans
> as I write this, but hey...  and 2) I'm using wvdial (SuSE 6.2) to open and
> close the connection, is there an easier (command-line based) way?

I set my ppp connection to be 'controlable' by any user allowing me to
issue a command like: if-up ppp0
in /etc/ppp/if-up.local, I have commands I want to execute every time
the ppp link comes up, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
# make sure the link is truely UP by waiting 5 seconds
sleep 5

#fetch mail for all my users using fetchmail
usr/bin/fetchmail | /bin/mail -s "fetchmail results" pdm &

# synchronise my clock with that of the ISP mail server
/usr/bin/rdate -s mailhost.shef.ac.uk
/sbin/clock -wu

# Force a send of all queued mail
/usr/sbin/sendmail -q

# End Of File

>  On
> the Sheflug site I've noticed a dummy script, but I'm a bit wary of fiddling and
> messing up my system.  Obviously I'm using something else (KDE - Kmail) to send
> this, but I would much prefer to be using WindowMaker ( & Enlightenment come to
> think about it) instead.
If you have KDE installed, which it appears you do, you can use any KDE
program (e.g. kmail) from any wwindow manager. just type the name of
the program (kmail) and an xterm shell prompt. Or you can use any other
mailer you like, eg exmh, tkrat, mutt, pine, elm, emacs, etc...


One thing you will discover about Gnu/Linux is that there are many many
ways of doings things and you are sure to find one to suit your
preference.
Furthermore, provided you do thigs as a USER, not ROOT, it is highly
unlikely that you will mess up your system - you may mess your own
preferences and options but the system will survive intact. Restoring
pwersonal user preferences are usually a simple matter and it you
cannot, deleting the appropriate user config file or directory or
copying a default file from the /etc/skel directory will cure it. These
files are all simple text files, e.g. ~/.bashrc, ~/.fetchmailrc, etc.

Good Luck

Pieter

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