-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, October 8 at 01:37 PM, quoth Indi: > I have been using mutt without trouble on OS X for several weeks > until today, when suddenly I got "/var/mail/$username is not a > mailbox". What on earth happened?
Sounds like your mailspool got corrupted (or transformed into an mbox format that mutt doesn't understand). There are several different mbox formats, all of which are mutually incompatible. Mutt understands three of them. If you somehow got a new program delivering mail to your mailspool that is writing a new and probably incompatible mbox format, that could make mutt unable to understand your mailspool file. For details on some of the different formats, check here: http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html Note, near the bottom, the problems of incompatibilities: - Delivering messages to "mboxcl2" format mailboxes with "mboxo" or "mboxrd" tools will corrupt the mailbox, rendering all subsequently delivered messages irretrievable. Mutt attempts to convert from mboxo and mboxrd format into mboxcl format. Generally, this is one of the general problems with mbox mailboxes (i.e. mailspools): everyone has a different idea of how to store messages in that file. The *best* thing to do, as a general rule, is to use mutt to move messages OUT of the mailspool and into a mailbox in your home directory somewhere, that only mutt uses. That way you can be assured that other programs, that might have a different idea of how to store messages, won't corrupt it. Mutt tries to make this easy by allowing you to specify a $spoolfile and an $mbox to store read messages in. Personally, I prefer not using a centralized mailspool like that, but it's really up to you. > I have Googled this extensively and found no useful answer, so have > been forced to revert to claws-mail for an MUA -- arrgh! Claws-mail can read the mailspool file? Hmm... I doubt it's doing it correctly... Anyway, you can attempt to fix the corrupted file by hand, using a text editor. Or you could try to use Claws-mail to save the messages elsewhere, which should enable mutt to read them in their new location. ~Kyle - -- Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. -- Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ (Luke 12:51-53) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: Thank you for using encryption! iEYEARECAAYFAkjs9qkACgkQBkIOoMqOI1544gCgtOLE7pZ0mNX6baEkQpAuyqZ1 GfIAoMn4UVHUrQ6MZc1+PDq/yVStBEdu =MJ9T -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
