Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!PEBBLES.BBN.COM!jr
From: jr@PEBBLES.BBN.COM (John Robinson)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Gnu 18.51 Question re: rmail-primary-inbox-list
Message-ID: <27383.580570778@pebbles>
Date: 25 May 88 13:39:38 GMT
References: <19304@beta.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jr@bbn.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 40

> (defconst rmail-primary-inbox-list  nil "\
> List of files which are inboxes for user's primary mail file ~/RMAIL.
> `nil' means the default, which is ("~/mbox" "/usr/spool/mail/$USER")
> (the second name varies depending on the operating system).")
> 
> which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. 
> 
> Can anybody explain?

The code that does this follows.  It constructs the default if the
variable rmail-primary-inbox-list is nil when (rmail) first runs.  If
you are reading this message in emacs, put your cursor at the end of
this form, hit ^X^E (assuming this is still bound to
(eval-last-sexp)), and see what the result is.  Actually, back up two
right-parens into the form to evaluate the second arg of the (setq);
or else just look at the value of rmail-inbox-list (assuming you have
already run rmail).

      ;; Provide default set of inboxes for primary mail file ~/RMAIL.
      (and (null rmail-inbox-list)
	   (null file-name-arg)
	   (setq rmail-inbox-list
		 (or rmail-primary-inbox-list
		     (list "~/mbox"
			   (concat rmail-spool-directory
				   (if (getenv "LOGNAME")
				       "$LOGNAME" "$USER"))))))

I don't know why rmail doesn't use the standard defaulting mechanism
for rmail-primary-inbox-list (i.e., the function (setq-default)).

This code depends on the additional variable rmail-spool-directory,
which is set in paths.el:

(defconst rmail-spool-directory
  (if (memq system-type '(hpux usg-unix-v))
      "/usr/mail/"
    "/usr/spool/mail/")
  "Name of directory used by system mailer for delivering new mail.
Its name should end with a slash.")