Gottipati Aravind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Tue, 06 Jun 2000:
> I set up Procmail to filter mail from three mailing lists into
> three file gtk, mutt and fslc. This is how my muttrc file looks like.
> But when I startup mutt and type "c and SPACE" the manual says it should
> change to the next mailbox that had new mail. This is not happening,
> however if I do a "c ?" and then physically enter that mailbox from
> directory menu, it shows that it does have new mail. I am also including
> my procmail filter file below this.. just in case. What could I be doing
> wrong?
Well, this gets into how Mutt detects that a folder has new mail. It's
a FAQ but there's no FAQ entry for it, unfortunately.
Anyway, the point is that Mutt doesn't actually open (look inside)
folders to see if they have new mail in them or not. It just looks at
the folder "on the surface". For mbox folder format, which is the
normal unix mail folder format, this means looking at the timestamps of
the mail folder file. If the modified time is newer than the last
accessed time, then the folder is assumed/considered to contain new mail.
Of course, when you actually open a folder, then Mutt will look at the
states of individual messages and know if they are new or not.
So, if the "c<space>" method is not working for you, that means that the
folders don't appear to contain new mail at least based on the
timestamps. This usually means that some program or another has read
the folder file since new mail was delivered into it, which makes the
accessed time later than the modified time.
We can't really tell why the file timestamps change on your system, but
possivbe reasons (that I have seen) include:
1) the folder has been opened before with Mutt or another email program
2) problems with timestamps for files served over NFS (but if you're
using NFS I strongly recommend Maildir format anyway)
3) new mail notifiers which scan the folder and don't reset the last
accessed timestamp
4) backup programs which read the folder files
Hope this helps,
Mikko
(Oh yeah, if someone feels like creating a FAQ entry for this question,
I'd be more than happy to let my text from above being used, if it would
be helpful...)
--
// Mikko Hänninen, aka. Wizzu // [EMAIL PROTECTED] // http://www.iki.fi/wiz/
// The Corrs list maintainer // net.freak // DALnet IRC operator /
// Interests: roleplaying, Linux, the Net, fantasy & scifi, the Corrs /
I want patience, and I WANT IT NOW!
