Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!wls
From: wls@uwm.edu (Bill Stapleton)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: filter(1) disables biff (was "bell on new mail")
Keywords: filter, biff, inetd, comsat
Message-ID: <7042@uwm.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 90 19:49:09 GMT
References: <1990Oct15.175056.19427@dg-rtp.dg.com> <107204@convex.convex.com> <1990Oct16.160303.19442@DSI.COM>
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Reply-To: wls@uwm.edu (Bill Stapleton)
Organization: Computing Services, U of Wisc-Milwaukee
Lines: 27

In article <1990Oct16.160303.19442@DSI.COM>, syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein) writes:
> piziali@convex.com (Andy Piziali) writes:
> :I discovered today that the elm filter program does not notify inetd(8) of mail
> :it delivers to /usr/spool/mail.  Inetd(8) tells comsat(8) about the new mail
> :and, if the user has set biff set to "y" (/dev/tty* owner execute bit set),
> :comsat(8) writes the bell and mail header to the tty.
> Gee, I didn't know any MTA notified comsat, I thought it watched
> /usr/spool/mail for timestamp changes.

There's a simple little protocol:  You open a connection to comsat (inetd; udp,
biff) and send it the username and file address of the new message, and
it does the rest.  On our system (BSD 4.3), /bin/mail is normally used to
deliver messages, and it notifies comsat.  I've added this comsat notification
to the filter program here.
 
> :Syd, is there an
> :easy fix to filter(1) we could install?
> Nope.  Nor would there be.

It's a simple addition, and I've had no problems with it.  My code isn't very
polished, it's BSD-specific with no #ifdefs or anything, but I'll mail it to
anybody who's interested.

--
Bill Stapleton
     wls@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
     uwmcsd4!wls