{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# slocal(1) (man)\n\n**Summary:** slocal - asynchronously filter and deliver new mail to nmh\n\n**Synopsis:** /usr/lib/mh/slocal [-help] [-version] [-addr address] [-info data] [-sender sender] [-user\nusername] [-mailbox mbox] [-file file] [-maildelivery deliveryfile] [-verbose | -nover‐‐\nbose] [-suppressdup | -nosuppressdup] [-debug]\n\n## Flags\n\n| Flag | Long | Arg | Description |\n|------|------|-----|-------------|\n| — | — | — | in order to detect duplicates. Depending on your configuration, this database will be in ei‐ ther ndbm or Berkeley db fo |\n\n## See Also\n\n- rcvdist(1)\n- rcvpack(1)\n- rcvstore(1)\n- rcvtty(1)\n- mh-format(5)\n\n## Section Outline\n\n- **NAME** (2 lines)\n- **SYNOPSIS** (4 lines)\n- **DESCRIPTION** (23 lines) — 6 subsections\n - -suppressdup (12 lines)\n - Message Transfer Agents (8 lines)\n - The Maildelivery File (87 lines)\n - Security of Delivery Files (12 lines)\n - Example Delivery File (33 lines)\n - Sub-process environment (22 lines)\n- **FILES** (5 lines)\n- **SEE ALSO** (2 lines)\n- **DEFAULTS** (8 lines) — 1 subsections\n - -addr -user (1 lines)\n- **CONTEXT** (2 lines)\n- **HISTORY** (9 lines)\n- **BUGS** (8 lines)\n\n## Full Content\n\n### NAME\n\nslocal - asynchronously filter and deliver new mail to nmh\n\n### SYNOPSIS\n\n/usr/lib/mh/slocal [-help] [-version] [-addr address] [-info data] [-sender sender] [-user\nusername] [-mailbox mbox] [-file file] [-maildelivery deliveryfile] [-verbose | -nover‐‐\nbose] [-suppressdup | -nosuppressdup] [-debug]\n\n### DESCRIPTION\n\nslocal is a program designed to allow you to have your inbound mail processed according to a\ncomplex set of selection criteria. You do not normally invoke slocal yourself, rather slocal\nis invoked on your behalf by your system's Message Transfer Agent (such as sendmail) when the\nmessage arrives.\n\nThe message selection criteria used by slocal is specified in the file “.maildelivery” in the\nuser's home directory. You can specify an alternate file with the -maildelivery file option.\nThe syntax of this file is specified below.\n\nThe message delivery address and message sender are determined from the Message Transfer\nAgent envelope information, if possible. Under sendmail, the sender will obtained from the\nUUCP “From:” line, if present. The user may override these values with the -addr and -sender\nswitches.\n\nThe message is normally read from the standard input. The -file switch sets the name of the\nfile from which the message should be read, instead of reading stdin. This is useful when\ndebugging a “.maildelivery” file.\n\nThe -user switch tells slocal the name of the user for whom it is delivering mail. It must\nexist on the local system. The -mailbox switch tells slocal the name of the user's mail drop\nfile.\n\nslocal is able to detect and suppress duplicate messages. To enable this, use the option\n\n#### -suppressdup\n\nin order to detect duplicates. Depending on your configuration, this database will be in ei‐\nther ndbm or Berkeley db format.\n\nThe -info switch may be used to pass an arbitrary argument to sub-processes which slocal may\ninvoke on your behalf.\n\nThe -verbose switch causes slocal to give information on stdout about its progress. The -de‐‐\nbug switch produces more verbose debugging output on stderr. These flags are useful when\ncreating and debugging your “.maildelivery” file, as they allow you to see the decisions and\nactions that slocal is taking, as well as check for syntax errors in your “.maildelivery”\nfile.\n\n#### Message Transfer Agents\n\nMost modern MTAs including sendmail, postfix and exim support a .forward file for directing\nincoming mail. You should include the line\n\n“| /usr/lib/mh/slocal -user username”\n\nin your .forward file in your home directory. This will cause your MTA to invoke slocal on\nyour behalf when a message arrives.\n\n#### The Maildelivery File\n\nThe “.maildelivery” file controls how slocal filters and delivers incoming mail. Each line\nof this file consists of five fields, separated by whitespace or comma. Since double-quotes\nare honored, these characters may be included in a single argument by enclosing the entire\nargument in double-quotes. A double-quote can be included by preceding it with a backslash.\nLines beginning with `#' and blank lines are ignored.\n\nThe format of each line in the “.maildelivery” file is:\n\nheader pattern action result string\n\nheader:\nThe name of a header field (such as To, Cc, or From) that is to be searched for a pat‐\ntern. This is any field in the headers of the message that might be present.\n\nThe following special fields are also defined:\n\nsource the out-of-band sender information\n\naddr the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient\n\ndefault this matches only if the message hasn't been delivered yet\n\n* this always matches\n\npattern:\nThe sequence of characters to match in the specified header field. Matching is case-in‐\nsensitive, but does not use regular expressions.\n\naction:\nThe action to take to deliver the message. When a message is delivered, a “Deliv‐\nery-Date: date” header is added which indicates the date and time that message was de‐\nlivered.\n\ndestroy\nThis action always succeeds.\n\nfile, mbox, or >\nAppend the message to the file named by string. The message is appended to the file\nin mbox (uucp) format. This is the format used by most other mail clients (such as\nmailx, elm). If the message can be appended to the file, then this action succeeds.\n\nmmdf\nIdentical to file, but always appends the message using the MMDF mailbox format.\n\npipe or |\nPipe the message as the standard input to the command named by string, using the\nBourne shell sh to interpret the string. Prior to giving the string to the shell,\nit is expanded with the following built-in variables:\n\n$(sender) the out-of-band sender information\n\n$(address) the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient\n\n$(size) the size of the message in bytes\n\n$(reply-to) either the “Reply-To:” or “From:” field of the message\n\n$(info) the out-of-band information specified\n\nqpipe or ^\nSimilar to pipe, but executes the command directly, after built-in variable expan‐\nsion, without assistance from the shell. This action can be used to avoid quoting\nspecial characters which your shell might interpret.\n\nfolder or +\nStore the message in the nmh folder named by string. Currently this is handled by\npiping the message to the nmh program rcvstore, although this may change in the fu‐\nture.\n\nresult:\nIndicates how the action should be performed:\n\nA Perform the action. If the action succeeds, then the message is considered deliv‐\nered.\n\nR Perform the action. Regardless of the outcome of the action, the message is not\nconsidered delivered.\n\n? Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered. If the action suc‐\nceeds, then the message is considered delivered.\n\nN Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered and the previous ac‐\ntion succeeded. If this action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.\n\nThe delivery file is always read completely, so that several matches can be made and\nseveral actions can be taken.\n\n#### Security of Delivery Files\n\nIn order to prevent security problems, the “.maildelivery” file must be owned either by the\nuser or by root, and must be writable only by the owner. If this is not the case, the file\nis not read.\n\nIf the “.maildelivery” file cannot be found, or does not perform an action which delivers the\nmessage, then slocal will check for a global delivery file at /etc/nmh/maildelivery. This\nfile is read according to the same rules. This file must be owned by root and must be\nwritable only by root.\n\nIf a global delivery file cannot be found or does not perform an action which delivers the\nmessage, then standard delivery to the user's mail drop is performed.\n\n#### Example Delivery File\n\nTo summarize, here's an example delivery file:\n\n#\n# .maildelivery file for nmh's slocal\n#\n# Blank lines and lines beginning with a '#' are ignored\n#\n# FIELD PATTERN ACTION RESULT STRING\n#\n\n# File mail with foobar in the “To:” line into file foobar.log\nTo foobar file A foobar.log\n\n# Pipe messages from coleman to the program message-archive\nFrom coleman pipe A /bin/message-archive\n\n# Anything to the “nmh-workers” mailing list is put in\n# its own folder, if not filed already\nTo nmh-workers folder ? nmh-workers\n\n# Anything with Unix in the subject is put into\n# the file unix-mail\nSubject unix file A unix-mail\n\n# I don't want to read mail from Steve, so destroy it\nFrom steve destroy A -\n\n# Put anything not matched yet into mailbox\ndefault - file ? mailbox\n\n# always run rcvtty\n* - pipe R /usr/lib/mh/rcvtty\n\n#### Sub-process environment\n\nWhen a process is invoked, its environment is: the user/group-ids are set to recipient's ids;\nthe working directory is the recipient's home directory; the umask is 0077; the process has\nno /dev/tty; the standard input is set to the message; the standard output and diagnostic\noutput are set to /dev/null; all other file-descriptors are closed; the environment variables\n$USER, $HOME, $SHELL are set appropriately, and no other environment variables exist.\n\nThe process is given a certain amount of time to execute. If the process does not exit\nwithin this limit, the process will be terminated with extreme prejudice. The amount of time\nis calculated as ((size / 60) + 300) seconds, where size is the number of bytes in the mes‐\nsage (with 30 minutes the maximum time allowed).\n\nThe exit status of the process is consulted in determining the success of the action. An\nexit status of zero means that the action succeeded. Any other exit status (or abnormal ter‐\nmination) means that the action failed.\n\nIn order to avoid any time limitations, you might implement a process that began by\nfork()-ing. The parent would return the appropriate value immediately, and the child could\ncontinue on, doing whatever it wanted for as long as it wanted. This approach is somewhat\nrisky if the parent is going to return an exit status of zero. If the parent is going to re‐\nturn a non-zero exit status, then this approach can lead to quicker delivery into your mail\ndrop.\n\n### FILES\n\n/etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file\n$HOME/.maildelivery The file controlling local delivery\n/etc/nmh/maildelivery Rather than the standard file\n/var/mail/$USER The default mail drop\n\n### SEE ALSO\n\nrcvdist(1), rcvpack(1), rcvstore(1), rcvtty(1), mh-format(5)\n\n### DEFAULTS\n\n`-noverbose'\n`-nosuppressdup'\n`-maildelivery' defaults to $HOME/.maildelivery\n`-mailbox' defaults to /var/mail/$USER\n`-file' defaults to stdin\n`-addr' defaults to the current user\n`-user' defaults to the current user\n\n#### -addr -user\n\n### CONTEXT\n\nNone\n\n### HISTORY\n\nslocal was originally designed to be backward-compatible with the maildelivery facility pro‐\nvided by MMDF-II. Thus, the “.maildelivery” file syntax is somewhat limited. But slocal has\nbeen modified and extended, so that is it no longer compatible with MMDF-II.\n\nIn addition to an exit status of zero, the MMDF values RPMOK (32) and RPOK (9) mean that\nthe message has been fully delivered. Any other non-zero exit status, including abnormal\ntermination, is interpreted as the MMDF value RPMECH (200), which means “use an alternate\nroute” (deliver the message to the mail drop).\n\n### BUGS\n\nOnly two return codes are meaningful, others should be.\n\nslocal was originally designed to be backwards-compatible with the maildelivery functionality\nprovided by MMDF-II.\n\n\n\nnmh-1.7.1 2016-05-02 SLOCAL(1mh)\n\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "slocal", "section": "1", "mode": "man", "summary": "slocal - asynchronously filter and deliver new mail to nmh", "synopsis": "/usr/lib/mh/slocal [-help] [-version] [-addr address] [-info data] [-sender sender] [-user\nusername] [-mailbox mbox] [-file file] [-maildelivery deliveryfile] [-verbose | -nover‐‐\nbose] [-suppressdup | -nosuppressdup] [-debug]", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [ { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "in order to detect duplicates. Depending on your configuration, this database will be in ei‐ ther ndbm or Berkeley db format. The -info switch may be used to pass an arbitrary argument to sub-processes which slocal may invoke on your behalf. The -verbose switch causes slocal to give information on stdout about its progress. The -de‐‐ bug switch produces more verbose debugging output on stderr. These flags are useful when creating and debugging your “.maildelivery” file, as they allow you to see the decisions and actions that slocal is taking, as well as check for syntax errors in your “.maildelivery” file." } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "rcvdist", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rcvdist/1/json" }, { "name": "rcvpack", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rcvpack/1/json" }, { "name": "rcvstore", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rcvstore/1/json" }, { "name": "rcvtty", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rcvtty/1/json" }, { "name": "mh-format", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-format/5/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 4, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 23, "subsections": [ { "name": "-suppressdup", "lines": 12 }, { "name": "Message Transfer Agents", "lines": 8 }, { "name": "The Maildelivery File", "lines": 87 }, { "name": "Security of Delivery Files", "lines": 12 }, { "name": "Example Delivery File", "lines": 33 }, { "name": "Sub-process environment", "lines": 22 } ] }, { "name": "FILES", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DEFAULTS", "lines": 8, "subsections": [ { "name": "-addr -user", "lines": 1 } ] }, { "name": "CONTEXT", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "HISTORY", "lines": 9, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "BUGS", "lines": 8, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "slocal - asynchronously filter and deliver new mail to nmh\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "/usr/lib/mh/slocal [-help] [-version] [-addr address] [-info data] [-sender sender] [-user\nusername] [-mailbox mbox] [-file file] [-maildelivery deliveryfile] [-verbose | -nover‐‐\nbose] [-suppressdup | -nosuppressdup] [-debug]\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "slocal is a program designed to allow you to have your inbound mail processed according to a\ncomplex set of selection criteria. You do not normally invoke slocal yourself, rather slocal\nis invoked on your behalf by your system's Message Transfer Agent (such as sendmail) when the\nmessage arrives.\n\nThe message selection criteria used by slocal is specified in the file “.maildelivery” in the\nuser's home directory. You can specify an alternate file with the -maildelivery file option.\nThe syntax of this file is specified below.\n\nThe message delivery address and message sender are determined from the Message Transfer\nAgent envelope information, if possible. Under sendmail, the sender will obtained from the\nUUCP “From:” line, if present. The user may override these values with the -addr and -sender\nswitches.\n\nThe message is normally read from the standard input. The -file switch sets the name of the\nfile from which the message should be read, instead of reading stdin. This is useful when\ndebugging a “.maildelivery” file.\n\nThe -user switch tells slocal the name of the user for whom it is delivering mail. It must\nexist on the local system. The -mailbox switch tells slocal the name of the user's mail drop\nfile.\n\nslocal is able to detect and suppress duplicate messages. To enable this, use the option", "subsections": [ { "name": "-suppressdup", "content": "in order to detect duplicates. Depending on your configuration, this database will be in ei‐\nther ndbm or Berkeley db format.\n\nThe -info switch may be used to pass an arbitrary argument to sub-processes which slocal may\ninvoke on your behalf.\n\nThe -verbose switch causes slocal to give information on stdout about its progress. The -de‐‐\nbug switch produces more verbose debugging output on stderr. These flags are useful when\ncreating and debugging your “.maildelivery” file, as they allow you to see the decisions and\nactions that slocal is taking, as well as check for syntax errors in your “.maildelivery”\nfile.\n" }, { "name": "Message Transfer Agents", "content": "Most modern MTAs including sendmail, postfix and exim support a .forward file for directing\nincoming mail. You should include the line\n\n“| /usr/lib/mh/slocal -user username”\n\nin your .forward file in your home directory. This will cause your MTA to invoke slocal on\nyour behalf when a message arrives.\n" }, { "name": "The Maildelivery File", "content": "The “.maildelivery” file controls how slocal filters and delivers incoming mail. Each line\nof this file consists of five fields, separated by whitespace or comma. Since double-quotes\nare honored, these characters may be included in a single argument by enclosing the entire\nargument in double-quotes. A double-quote can be included by preceding it with a backslash.\nLines beginning with `#' and blank lines are ignored.\n\nThe format of each line in the “.maildelivery” file is:\n\nheader pattern action result string\n\nheader:\nThe name of a header field (such as To, Cc, or From) that is to be searched for a pat‐\ntern. This is any field in the headers of the message that might be present.\n\nThe following special fields are also defined:\n\nsource the out-of-band sender information\n\naddr the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient\n\ndefault this matches only if the message hasn't been delivered yet\n\n* this always matches\n\npattern:\nThe sequence of characters to match in the specified header field. Matching is case-in‐\nsensitive, but does not use regular expressions.\n\naction:\nThe action to take to deliver the message. When a message is delivered, a “Deliv‐\nery-Date: date” header is added which indicates the date and time that message was de‐\nlivered.\n\ndestroy\nThis action always succeeds.\n\nfile, mbox, or >\nAppend the message to the file named by string. The message is appended to the file\nin mbox (uucp) format. This is the format used by most other mail clients (such as\nmailx, elm). If the message can be appended to the file, then this action succeeds.\n\nmmdf\nIdentical to file, but always appends the message using the MMDF mailbox format.\n\npipe or |\nPipe the message as the standard input to the command named by string, using the\nBourne shell sh to interpret the string. Prior to giving the string to the shell,\nit is expanded with the following built-in variables:\n\n$(sender) the out-of-band sender information\n\n$(address) the address that was used to cause delivery to the recipient\n\n$(size) the size of the message in bytes\n\n$(reply-to) either the “Reply-To:” or “From:” field of the message\n\n$(info) the out-of-band information specified\n\nqpipe or ^\nSimilar to pipe, but executes the command directly, after built-in variable expan‐\nsion, without assistance from the shell. This action can be used to avoid quoting\nspecial characters which your shell might interpret.\n\nfolder or +\nStore the message in the nmh folder named by string. Currently this is handled by\npiping the message to the nmh program rcvstore, although this may change in the fu‐\nture.\n\nresult:\nIndicates how the action should be performed:\n\nA Perform the action. If the action succeeds, then the message is considered deliv‐\nered.\n\nR Perform the action. Regardless of the outcome of the action, the message is not\nconsidered delivered.\n\n? Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered. If the action suc‐\nceeds, then the message is considered delivered.\n\nN Perform the action only if the message has not been delivered and the previous ac‐\ntion succeeded. If this action succeeds, then the message is considered delivered.\n\nThe delivery file is always read completely, so that several matches can be made and\nseveral actions can be taken.\n" }, { "name": "Security of Delivery Files", "content": "In order to prevent security problems, the “.maildelivery” file must be owned either by the\nuser or by root, and must be writable only by the owner. If this is not the case, the file\nis not read.\n\nIf the “.maildelivery” file cannot be found, or does not perform an action which delivers the\nmessage, then slocal will check for a global delivery file at /etc/nmh/maildelivery. This\nfile is read according to the same rules. This file must be owned by root and must be\nwritable only by root.\n\nIf a global delivery file cannot be found or does not perform an action which delivers the\nmessage, then standard delivery to the user's mail drop is performed.\n" }, { "name": "Example Delivery File", "content": "To summarize, here's an example delivery file:\n\n#\n# .maildelivery file for nmh's slocal\n#\n# Blank lines and lines beginning with a '#' are ignored\n#\n# FIELD PATTERN ACTION RESULT STRING\n#\n\n# File mail with foobar in the “To:” line into file foobar.log\nTo foobar file A foobar.log\n\n# Pipe messages from coleman to the program message-archive\nFrom coleman pipe A /bin/message-archive\n\n# Anything to the “nmh-workers” mailing list is put in\n# its own folder, if not filed already\nTo nmh-workers folder ? nmh-workers\n\n# Anything with Unix in the subject is put into\n# the file unix-mail\nSubject unix file A unix-mail\n\n# I don't want to read mail from Steve, so destroy it\nFrom steve destroy A -\n\n# Put anything not matched yet into mailbox\ndefault - file ? mailbox\n\n# always run rcvtty\n* - pipe R /usr/lib/mh/rcvtty\n" }, { "name": "Sub-process environment", "content": "When a process is invoked, its environment is: the user/group-ids are set to recipient's ids;\nthe working directory is the recipient's home directory; the umask is 0077; the process has\nno /dev/tty; the standard input is set to the message; the standard output and diagnostic\noutput are set to /dev/null; all other file-descriptors are closed; the environment variables\n$USER, $HOME, $SHELL are set appropriately, and no other environment variables exist.\n\nThe process is given a certain amount of time to execute. If the process does not exit\nwithin this limit, the process will be terminated with extreme prejudice. The amount of time\nis calculated as ((size / 60) + 300) seconds, where size is the number of bytes in the mes‐\nsage (with 30 minutes the maximum time allowed).\n\nThe exit status of the process is consulted in determining the success of the action. An\nexit status of zero means that the action succeeded. Any other exit status (or abnormal ter‐\nmination) means that the action failed.\n\nIn order to avoid any time limitations, you might implement a process that began by\nfork()-ing. The parent would return the appropriate value immediately, and the child could\ncontinue on, doing whatever it wanted for as long as it wanted. This approach is somewhat\nrisky if the parent is going to return an exit status of zero. If the parent is going to re‐\nturn a non-zero exit status, then this approach can lead to quicker delivery into your mail\ndrop.\n" } ] }, "FILES": { "content": "/etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file\n$HOME/.maildelivery The file controlling local delivery\n/etc/nmh/maildelivery Rather than the standard file\n/var/mail/$USER The default mail drop\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "rcvdist(1), rcvpack(1), rcvstore(1), rcvtty(1), mh-format(5)\n", "subsections": [] }, "DEFAULTS": { "content": "`-noverbose'\n`-nosuppressdup'\n`-maildelivery' defaults to $HOME/.maildelivery\n`-mailbox' defaults to /var/mail/$USER\n`-file' defaults to stdin\n`-addr' defaults to the current user\n`-user' defaults to the current user\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "-addr -user", "content": "" } ] }, "CONTEXT": { "content": "None\n", "subsections": [] }, "HISTORY": { "content": "slocal was originally designed to be backward-compatible with the maildelivery facility pro‐\nvided by MMDF-II. Thus, the “.maildelivery” file syntax is somewhat limited. But slocal has\nbeen modified and extended, so that is it no longer compatible with MMDF-II.\n\nIn addition to an exit status of zero, the MMDF values RPMOK (32) and RPOK (9) mean that\nthe message has been fully delivered. Any other non-zero exit status, including abnormal\ntermination, is interpreted as the MMDF value RPMECH (200), which means “use an alternate\nroute” (deliver the message to the mail drop).\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "Only two return codes are meaningful, others should be.\n\nslocal was originally designed to be backwards-compatible with the maildelivery functionality\nprovided by MMDF-II.\n\n\n\nnmh-1.7.1 2016-05-02 SLOCAL(1mh)", "subsections": [] } } } }