Re: [bug-mailutils] Mail, sends to dead.letter once in a while, to black hole mostly

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 03 July 2013 11:54:08 Jordi Mallach did opine:

> Hi Gene,
> 
> El dc 03 de 07 de 2013 a les 06:48 -0400, en/na Gene Heskett va
> 
> escriure:
> > No luck this morning, no mail from amanda either.  So I went to check,
> > "which mail" returned a null.  Man mail also failed.  Removing the
> > bsd- mailx package with synaptic removed the manpages and executables
> > of mailutils!
> > 
> > So I "re-installed" mailutils and the -mh addition.  Now I have a man
> > page that bears little resemblance to the one I was looking at 2 days
> > ago when I started on this quest to make local mail work like it used
> > to on other installs since 1998.
> > 
> > And "which mail" now returns: /usr/bin/mail like it should.
> > 
> > So add this bit of trivia to your box of clues for new bee's like me. 
> > But there's nothing new about me, 78 yo retire broadcast engineer,
> > and type 2 diabetic, my warranty expired 25 years ago.
> > 
> > Removing bsd-mailx /after/ installing mailutils, _WILL_ remove the
> > docs and executables of mailutils.
> 
> If I followed you correctly, it makes little sense.
> 
> In Debian based systems, /usr/bin/mailx is a symlink pointing to the
> alternatives system. Currently there are 3 different implementations of
> mailx packaged in Debian: mailutils', heirloom's and BSD's.
> 
> You can install all three in parallel, but of course only one will take
> over the symlink.
> 
> To configure which takes precedence, update-alternatives --config mailx

It didn't make sense to me either, and before I started playing with 
things, there was, in /usr/bin, all 3 executables, non of which were 
simlinked to the other, but which, while of slightly differing sizes, all 
acted identically when invoked.

As for mailx in alternatives, is linked to /usr/bin/mail, as is the mailx 
manpage, both carrying yesterdays date.  In /usr/bin, only mailx is a link 
back to mailx in alternatives.

And while I have looked my kde-ish menu's do not contain an update-
alternatives.  It does exist:
address@hidden:/etc/alternatives# which update-alternatives
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives

This is not quite a full blown kde install, only enough to get kmail, 
konversation, and kicad, but I've not done anything with kicad.  Freecad 
looks better, but both have a vertical learning curve.  But I do hear good 
things about it (kicad) from those who have reached something resembling an 
understanding of it.

However as a test just now, I sent me a mail using "mail address@hidden", gave 
it a subject line and a text line, then hit ctrl+d, clean exit but it did 
not make it to /var/spool/mail/gene.

I have a separation of kmail from any fetching duties via letting fetchmail 
collect the mail, which has nothing to do with this, but another of my 
scripts uses inotifywait to watch the mail spool file(s) and when a file 
has been closed, sends kmail a getmail command causing it to go and get the 
mail named in the inotifywait return.  So I should have seen the inbox 
count go up and heard the incoming mail beep in milliseconds.

My amanda.conf contains this line:
mailto "address@hidden"
But "mailto" could be an internal amanda thing, it has worked with every 
other install I've ever done, with that installs default "mail" program.

So, now, how do I troubleshoot what your /usr/bin/mail is actually doing 
with my pecks on the keyboard?  Does it keep a logfile someplace?

Thanks for any help.

Cheers, Gene
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