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Chapter 12: UNIX Mail Systems
First, a general word on mail handling at Fermilab. FNAL formerly referred to the central Fermilab VAX computing cluster, where most people at the lab had an account. As computing became more distributed, a single mail serving node was set up to handle the mail flow. This mail server was designated as FNAL, and the central VAX cluster was renamed to FNALV. FNAL will continue to function as the Fermilab mail server.
The central mail server provides a simple, uniform mail address for all users at the lab:
username@fnal.gov
We strongly recommend that you take advantage of this capability and have all your mail routed through FNAL. It is your responsibility to choose a node for reading mail and to make sure your forwarding address on FNAL is set to this node. We step you through the forwarding process in section 12.1.3. However, we recommend that you work your way through the material in this chapter in the order it is presented, and change your forwarding address on FNAL only when you're ready to actually switch your mail activities to your chosen mail system on UNIX.
Before getting started, you will need to choose a node for your mail activities. Once you do, forwarding mail to that particular node requires creating a simple .forward file in your $HOME directory. We show you how to do this in section 12.3 and again in F.1. If your chosen mail node is part of a UNIX "cluster" like FNALU on which a file-sharing system is installed (for example AFS or NFS), then creating a single .forward file in your common $HOME directory is sufficient for the entire cluster. The contents of this file indicates your chosen mail node within the cluster.
You might wonder why you need to choose a particular node in the case of a file-sharing cluster. The reason is that incoming mail on UNIX is sent to a non-shared area of one node; you can't change that, you can only specify which node you want used. From here the mail needs to be incorporated into the mail system of your choice; we cover this topic in sections 12.3.3, 12.4.3, and F.4. If you are working on a different node from the one receiving the incoming mail, you will be able to send mail, but you will only see previously incorporated mail; you will not receive (and cannot incorporate) new mail because it is inaccessible to this node.
The procedure we describe here for setting your mail forwarding has three advantages:
{username}@fnal.gov.
As a first step, in your $HOME directory on your chosen UNIX mail node, create a .forward file using your preferred editor. Enter the following expression as the contents of this file:
\{username}@{node}.fnal.gov
where {username} is your login id on your chosen mail node, {node}. For example, user "fred" who wants to receive mail on the FSUI01 node of the FNALU cluster would enter the line:
\fred@fsui01.fnal.gov
This expression is an instruction to put incoming messages in this designated node's spool area. The initial backslash (\) is required to prevent looping.
Later, you may decide to set up mail notification and/or unattended autoincorporation on your chosen mail node. These options are discussed in Appendix F. If so, you will need to replace the above expression with a different one in the .forward file on this node (or cluster) in order to prevent the redirection of incoming messages to two or more places.
As a second step, you need to log on to the mailserver node FNAL and use the menu-driven program to change the forwarding to your new mail node. If you don't know or don't remember your FNAL password, send mail to compdiv@fnal and request a new one.
Make sure you set forwarding here on FNAL to your new mail node BEFORE you change the forwarding on your old mail node to FNAL! Otherwise you get an infinite mail loop.
Once you're logged on to FNAL, you'll see the following menu:
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Select option F Set Forwarding. This brings you to the following screen:
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Set your new forwarding address here in the format:
{username}@{node}.fnal.gov
where {username} is your login id on your chosen mail node, {node}.
On all other external systems where you might receive mail (excluding the cluster containing your new mail node), UNIX or otherwise, set your forwarding address to your FNAL address.
To do this on other UNIX systems, create a .forward file in your $HOME directory on each separate node or file-sharing cluster. The contents of this file should be a single line containing the expression:
{username}@fnal.gov
where {username} is your login id on FNAL, the mail server. Note that there is no initial backslash here.
For information on how to set forwarding on non-UNIX machines, consult your system-specific documentation.
In most mail handlers, when a user directly "replies" to a message that you have sent (as opposed to starting a new message in the normal fashion to send to you), the reply is sent by default to the address from which you sent the original message, i.e., to the address in the "from" field. At Fermilab, this is not desirable; we prefer that all messages, including replies, get addressed to {username}@fnal.gov. In order to accomplish this, the outgoing message must specify a "reply to" address, and the mail handler that receives the message should be configured to send replies to that address in preference to the "from" address.
For pine, you need to set some configuration parameters. We describe this under Configuring pine in section 12.2.1.
For the MH mail handler, you can set your "reply to" address in the file components. We describe how to do this in section F.2.2. When replying to a message, the default behavior is to use the address in the "reply to" field if it has been supplied, otherwise to use the "from" address.