Re: /var/mail/$username" is not a mailbox
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, October 8 at 01:37 PM, quoth Indi: > I have been using mutt without trouble on OS X for several weeks > until today, when suddenly I got "/var/mail/$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 $mbox to store read messages in. Personally, I prefer not using a centralized mailspool like that, but it's really up to you. > I have Googled this extensively and found no useful answer, so have > been forced to revert to claws-mail for an MUA -- arrgh! Claws-mail can read the mailspool file? Hmm... I doubt it's doing it correctly... Anyway, you can attempt to fix the corrupted file by hand, using a text editor. Or you could try to use Claws-mail to save the messages elsewhere, which should enable mutt to read them in their new location. ~Kyle - -- Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. -- Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ (Luke 12:51-53) -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Comment: Thank you for using encryption! iEYEARECAAYFAkjs9qkACgkQBkIOoMqOI1544gCgtOLE7pZ0mNX6baEkQpAuyqZ1 GfIAoMn4UVHUrQ6MZc1+PDq/yVStBEdu =MJ9T -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: /var/mail/$username" is not a mailbox
On Wed, Oct 08, 2008 at 01:06:33PM -0500, Kyle Wheeler wrote: > 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 $mbox to store > read messages in. Personally, I prefer not using a centralized > mailspool like that, but it's really up to you. > > > I have Googled this extensively and found no useful answer, so have > > been forced to revert to claws-mail for an MUA -- arrgh! > > Claws-mail can read the mailspool file? Hmm... I doubt it's doing it > correctly... > > Anyway, you can attempt to fix the corrupted file by hand, using a > text editor. Or you could try to use Claws-mail to save the messages > elsewhere, which should enable mutt to read them in their new > location. > > ~Kyle > -- > Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but > rather division: For henceforth there shall be five in one house > divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be > divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother > against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother > in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against > her mother in law. >-- Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ (Luke 12:51-53) Thank you for the helpful advice. I still don't know for sure what happened, but I "fixed" it like this: mv /var/mail/indi out of the way cp /var/mail/root to /var/mail/indi chown indi:mail /var/mail/indi changed .muttrc to use MH instead and redid mailbox entries accordingly Examining the original /var/mail/indi (in jed) reveals nothing unusual; there must be some hidden property of which I am ignorant. But I expect it won't happen again using MH and ~/mail for my spool. :)
Re: /var/mail/$username" is not a mailbox
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, October 8 at 02:56 PM, quoth Indi: >Thank you for the helpful advice. I still don't know for sure what >happened, but I "fixed" it like this: >mv /var/mail/indi out of the way >cp /var/mail/root to /var/mail/indi >chown indi:mail /var/mail/indi >changed .muttrc to use MH instead and redid mailbox entries accordingly Fair enough. I'd recommend Maildir over MH, but . The key thing is that you don't leave important messages in your mailspool file (i.e. your $mbox setting is different from your $spoolfile setting). >Examining the original /var/mail/indi (in jed) reveals nothing unusual; >there must be some hidden property of which I am ignorant. What you should look for is stuff like: - do ALL messages in the file begin with a "From ..." line? (if not, add a From line) - are there any other lines that begin with the letters "From "? (if so, prepend them with a ">") - do ALL messages in the file contain a Content-Length: header? (if not, add one... this may be tricky to do by hand) You may be able to rescue the messages in the file by splitting them into individual files and opening them with mutt (e.g. `mutt -f rescued`). Good luck! ~Kyle - -- Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem. -- John Galsworthy -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Comment: Thank you for using encryption! iEYEARECAAYFAkjtFboACgkQBkIOoMqOI17qTwCfXd6YOdJTM3nZwH+lzLeX5Ra5 qBwAoPBKYQRmo1Pdi7sSzXoqsgVKJatc =dBml -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: /var/mail/$username" is not a mailbox
Am 2008-10-08 13:37:30, schrieb Indi: > > Hi, > > I have been using mutt without trouble on OS X for several weeks > until today, when suddenly I got "/var/mail/$username is not a mailbox". > What on earth happened? I haven't done a thing to my mailspool > file, nor to .muttrc. The only thing I can think of that might have > somehow caused this is that I set up fetchmail as a cronjob and did not > specify where to send output (so it would get mailed to me). I have > since taken that out of crontab. > > I can cat my /var/mail/$username file; there *is* mail there. > Perms are 600, owner is username, group is mail. > > I have Googled this extensively and found no useful answer, so have > been forced to revert to claws-mail for an MUA -- arrgh! Does each of the messages have a preceeding From [EMAIL PROTECTED] string? Thanks, Greetings and nice Day/Evening Michelle Konzack Systemadministrator 24V Electronic Engineer Tamay Dogan Network Debian GNU/Linux Consultant -- Linux-User #280138 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org/ # Debian GNU/Linux Consultant # Michelle Konzack Apt. 917 ICQ #328449886 +49/177/935194750, rue de Soultz MSN LinuxMichi +33/6/61925193 67100 Strasbourg/France IRC #Debian (irc.icq.com) signature.pgp Description: Digital signature
