Frequently Asked Questions
This file contains
answers to questions concerning e-mail on the Unix Cluster (blue.unix.virginia.edu).
CONTENTS:
Q1. Will I have to re-register my e-mail for blue.unix
if I used a single computer for e-mail before?
Q2. I use Eudora to read my mail. What changes will
I have to make to my configuration?
Q3. I use Netscape to read my mail. What changes will
I have to make to my configuration?
Q4. I use a Unix-based mailer (pine/elm/mush). What
changes do I need to make?
Q5. How will procmail, filter, and vacation function
on blue.unix?
Q6. I use pine on blue.unix and cannot send mail. How
do I fix this problem?
Q7.
I changed my Eudora/Netscape mail configuration to read mail from the cluster,
and all my
mail downloaded again. What happened?
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Q1. Will I have to re-register my e-mail for blue.unix
if I used a single computer for e-mail before?
A1. You will not need to re-register your e-mail. The machines which will
handle incoming and outgoing mail for the Cluster (unix.mail.virginia.edu
and smtp.mail.virginia.edu, respectively) will still process mail
which is addressed to your-id@faraday.clas.virginia.edu or to
your-id@watt.seas.virginia.edu and make it available to you when
you log into blue.unix.
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Q2. I use Eudora to read my mail. What changes will I have
to make to my configuration?
A2. See the document "E-mail Changes"
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Q3. I use Netscape to read my mail. What changes will I
have
to make to my configuration?
A3. See the document "E-mail Changes"
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Q4.
I use a Unix-based mailer (pine/elm/mush). What changes do I need to make?
A4. When you log into blue.unix.virginia.edu, your address will be:
Your_Computing_ID@unix.mail.virginia.edu
The only difference noted so far is how your mail program stores
message that have originated from your account. Since your mail
now uses a different address, most mail programs will show your
address and not the address of your recipient as they had before.
To combat this problem in pine:
1. Enter pine.
2. Type or select "S" from pine's main menu.
3. Type "C" for configure.
4. Scroll down and select the "user-domain" field.
5. Type an "A" to add a value.
6. Enter:
unix.mail.virginia.edu
7. Scroll down and select the "alt-addresses" field.
8. Type an "A" to add an address to this field.
9. Enter:
your_computing_id@unix.mail.virginia.edu,
your_computing_id@faraday.clas.virginia.edu,your_computing_id@virginia.edu
(NOTE: ITC staff can enter their holmes and jm addresses as well).
10. Type "E" to exit.
11. Type "Y" to save your configuration.
12. Exit pine, then re-enter.
To combat this problem in mush (the mail user's shell):
1. Edit your .mushrc file (or .mailrc, if it contains your configuration).
2. Add the line:
alts *
3. Exit your editor, saving changes.
4. Enter mush and the changes take effect.
The elm and upenelm mail programs do not contain a utility
for an alternate address.
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Q5. How will procmail, filter, and vacation function on
blue.unix?
A5. We do not recommend that you use the "filter" program on
blue.unix.virginia.edu if you have accounts on any machine
that shares your home directory with another system. Users who had
accounts only on faraday, watt, poe, curry, palladio, hobbes or
avery do not have to worry, but users with accounts on more than one
system should be aware of the issues surrounding "filter." This
program could result in scattered mailboxes since the filter
program does not distinguish on which machine it is processing mail
To filter your
mail, use the procmail program
instead.
The procmail program does contain some features to prevent your
mail from getting scattered among many hosts. We recommend that
you add the following lines to the beginning your .procmailrc
file as the first "recipe":
:0 f
* !^X-loop:.*Your_Computing_ID@unix.mail.virginia.edu
| /uva/bin/formail -A "X-loop: Your_Computing_ID@unix.mail.virginia.edu"
:0 a
* ! HOST ?? unix
!Your_Computing_ID@unix.mail.virginia.edu
This recipe will forward all your mail from other systems to the
new cluster. Make sure that you substitute Your_Computing_ID
with login id that you use to log into blue.unix.virginia.edu.
With the vacation mail program, you have the same issues as you
do with the filter program: scattered mailboxes. Again, if you
had an account on only one system before the move to the new
system, you will not have a problem. If, however, you have multiple
accounts that can receive mail (on holmes, jm, and any other machine
that gets home directories from the home directory server), you may
want to check those machines for mail once you discontinue the
vacation program's auto-reply.
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Q6. I use pine on blue.unix and cannot send mail. How do
I fix this
problem?
A6. If you can not send mail in pine on blue.unix, then do the following:
1. Enter pine.
2. Type "S" for setup.
3. Type "C" for configuration.
4. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll to the "smtp-server" option.
5. Type "D" to delete the setting "localhost."
6. Type "Y" to confirm deletion.
7. Type "E" to exit the setup.
8. Type "Y" to save changes.
9. Quit pine, then re-enter.
After you perform these steps, you will be able to send mail in pine on
the system.
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Q7. I changed my Eudora/Netscape mail configuration to
read mail from the
cluster, and all my mail downloaded again. What happened?
A7. If you have set Eudora/Netscape mail to "leave mail on server," meaning
that those programs leave a copy of your mail on the server as well
as copying to your computer, then you will experience this problem.
To keep you from getting multiple copies of the same message, those
programs keep track of what messages they have copied to your computer
for reading. When you changed your configuration to read the mail
from unix.mail.virginia.edu, those programs assume that all
the mail is from a new server, rather than the old messages that were
present before.
Unfortunately, there is no way around this problem. You will,
however, only experience this problem once after changing your
configuration to read mail from unix.mail.virginia.edu. After
making the first connection to the server, Eudora/Netscape will
remember what messages in your mailbox you have accessed.
Beginning with version 3.0, Eudora has the ability to clean mail
from the server after a period of time automatically. This way,
your old mail does not accumulate on the mail system. ITC
recommends that you use this version of Eudora for mail and set it
to remove the mail from the mail server every few days. This way,
ITC can backup your mailbox on the server and your mailbox will
not grow too large. Netscape mail does not currently have a
similar feature.
Eudora is available on ITC Software Central. Information
for
configuring Eudora/Netscape for the new cluster is also
available.
For more general information on Eudora, please read the ITCWeb
page on Eudora.
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