$Id: README,v 1.3 2002/08/19 14:35:36 jt Exp $

Abstract:

This is the README for the Cygwin procmail distribution.

The procmail program is used by Red Hat Linux for all local mail
delivery. In addition to just delivering mail, procmail can be used
for automatic filtering, presorting, and other mail handling jobs.
Procmail is also the basis for the SmartList mailing list processor.

I would like to thank Madoka Machitani for his pre-compiled fetchmail
and procmail binaries and for the patches necessary for proper operation
under Windows 9x/Me.  His work on the Cygwin ports made it much easier
for me to become the Cygwin maintainer.

Requirements:

The following packages or later are required to build and/or execute
Cygwin procmail:

    binutils 20011002-1
    cygwin 1.3.10-1
    gcc 2.95.3-5

Install:

Create a procmail run control file, ~/.procmailrc.  The contents of
this file are extremely user specific and (way) beyond the scope of
this README file.

procmail is usually invoked by your mail transfer agent (MTA).
Under Cygwin, I recommend using fetchmail to to retrieve your email.
Cygwin fetchmail will automatically invoke procmail.

I strongly encourage you to test your procmail recipes before for using
them in an unattended mode.  Use a command like to following:

    $ procmail VERBOSE=yes new-procmailrc <test.mail

and examine your procmail log file.

The following may be helpful with creating your run control file and/or
finding other (possible) ways to invoke procmail:

    http://www.ii.com/internet/robots/procmail/qs/

Source:

Unfortunately procmail does not build OOTB under Cygwin, so a patch has
been applied to correct this problem.  Additionally, other patches have
been applied to:

    o remove the the run control file (i.e., ~/.procmailrc) permission
      check so that procmail works under Windows 9x/Me and NT/2000/XP
      with CYGWIN=nontsec.
    o define the root UID to be 18 so that procmail will attempt to
      setuid when running under the LocalSystem account
    o open run control files in text mode so they are parsed correctly
      on binary mode mounts

The first patch has been submitted to procmail CVS for consideration
and can be found at:

    http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2002-04/msg00221.html

The second patch is identical to the one found on Madoka Machitani's
web site except that I replaced WIN9X with __CYGWIN__:

    http://www.dd.iij4u.or.jp/~madokam/#procmail

If the first patch is accepted into procmail CVS, then I will submit
the others for consideration too.

I also added the following files to the source archive:

    CYGWIN-PATCHES/README
    CYGWIN-PATCHES/build.sh
    CYGWIN-PATCHES/procmail.patch

and renamed the original source archive to match Cygwin's setup.exe
naming conventions.

To restore the procmail source to its original state, perform the
following:

    $ cd procmail-$version-$package
    $ patch -R -p1 <CYGWIN-PATCHES/procmail.patch
    $ rm -fr CYGWIN-PATCHES

where $version is the procmail version (e.g., 3.22) and $package is the
Cygwin package number.

Build:

This distribution has been configured (not in the autoconf sense of the
word) as follows:

    Locking strategies:     dotlocking, fcntl()
    Default rcfile:         $HOME/.procmailrc
    Your system mailbox:    /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME

where:

    $HOME is your home directory
    $LOGNAME = `id -un`

See CYGWIN-PATCHES/build.sh in the source archive for my exact build
recipe for making and packaging this distribution.

Test:

procmail does not contain any regression tests.

Issues:

The following are the known Cygwin procmail issues:

1. The patch applied to remove the the run control file permission
check is done at compile time.  It would have been better to do this
at run time.  Unfortunately, I opted for the "cleaner" way (i.e., more
likely to be accepted into procmail CVS) instead of the better way.

2. Although procmail has been patch to build cleaning under Cygwin,
the build still needs to be "hot-wired" to enable fcntl() locking.

3. Extremely occasionally, Cygwin procmail will leave a stray .lock file
around which can cause a misfiling of mail messages.  I am attempting
to track down the root cause of this problem.  Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Note that I now have some evidence that the stray .lock files are
actually caused by abruptly terminated remote (via ssh) mutt processes.

Homepage:

The primary procmail web site is:

    http://www.procmail.org/

Download:

The primary procmail ftp site is:

    ftp://ftp.procmail.net/pub/procmail/

Mailing Lists:

Please report problems, suggestions, etc. dependent on their nature to
one of the following:

    procmail@informatik.rwth-aachen.de (eventually procmail-users@procmail.org)
    cygwin@cygwin.com

Maintainer:

    Jason Tishler <jason@tishler.net>