Unix 'mail' command/program

Dave!

Hey folks,

I'm fairly new to Unix, and I've just discovered the 'mail' command, and I was wondering if it's possible to be able to check my Gmail account with this command? I have my iBook set up so that I'm able to check it using the Mail application, but when I type in the mail command into the terminal, it always says that I have no mail. I've been messing around with it, and I'm able to send emails using this shell program (although they come from a wierd address... [myname]@...cpc1-tall1-4-1-cus.....dbn.cable.ntl..), but I'm not able to send mails to that address -- they bounce back.

So in summary, am I able to set up my iBook so that i can check my Gmail in the Terminal?

Thanks and sorry for being a n00b!

ntlbell

DaveMcG wrote:

Hey folks,

I'm fairly new to Unix, and I've just discovered the 'mail' command, and I was wondering if it's possible to be able to check my Gmail account with this command? I have my iBook set up so that I'm able to check it using the Mail application, but when I type in the mail command into the terminal, it always says that I have no mail. I've been messing around with it, and I'm able to send emails using this shell program (although they come from a wierd address... [myname]@...cpc1-tall1-4-1-cus.....dbn.cable.ntl..), but I'm not able to send mails to that address -- they bounce back.

So in summary, am I able to set up my iBook so that i can check my Gmail in the Terminal?

Thanks and sorry for being a n00b!

look into fetchmail

seanos

'mail' command, typically checks /var/spool/$USER
It will send mail from the hostname (can be checked via 'hostname').

To check mail, interactively, via command-line, look into mutt.

Dave!

hmmm... would you be able to be a bit more specific, cos there's alot of info on fetchmail and it's hard to understand.

I have all my POP information, servers, and so on -- is there a way I can change the settings in the terminal so that I can enter this information?

ntlbell

DaveMcG wrote:

hmmm... would you be able to be a bit more specific, cos there's alot of info on fetchmail and it's hard to understand.

I have all my POP information, servers, and so on -- is there a way I can change the settings in the terminal so that I can enter this information?

If you install a terminal based e-mail client.

larryone

Such as mutt. I got too much into the habit of using pine. I'll get around to mutt at some point...

liamo

As ntlbell said, look into fetchmail.

To get you started, here's the fetchmail setup that I use to retrieve my mail from GMail.

Create the file .fetchmailrc in your home directory

Add the following to the file :

poll pop.gmail.com
proto pop3
port 995
user "user.name@gmail.com"
pass "mypassword"
is "mylocaluser"
keep
fetchall
ssl

When you run the fetchmail command it should get your mail from GMail.

You'll also need to switch on POP3 mail on your GMail account.

This works for me under Linux. I imagine it should port straight over to OS X but I don't know for sure.

Regards,

Liam

dahamsta

I miss pine.

larryone

pine can be nice, but from what I've heard lacks some of the functionality that you get with mutt. Pine Is Not Elm

Dave!

Thanks for that liamo!

Here's the message I'm getting though, when I run the fetchmail command after sending myself a test email from another address...

cpc1-tall1-4-1-cust85:~ dmcg$ fetchmail
1 message for d..mcg...@gmail.com at pop.gmail.com (1689 octets).
reading message [email]dmcg@gmail.com@gmail-pop.l.google.com[/email]:1 of 1 (1689 octets) .fetchmail: SMTP connect to localhost failed
fetchmail: SMTP transaction error while fetching from pop.gmail.com
fetchmail: Query status=10 (SMTP)


Any ideas?

Also, here...

is "mylocaluser"

Should that actually be mylocaluser or should I type in my local user? I think I got an error the second way, so it's currently the former.

Thanks

liamo

DaveMcG wrote:

cpc1-tall1-4-1-cust85:~ dmcg$ fetchmail
1 message for d..mcg...@gmail.com at pop.gmail.com (1689 octets).
reading message [email]dmcg@gmail.com@gmail-pop.l.google.com[/email]:1 of
1 (1689 octets) .

Well, that part of it looks good. You've logged into Gmail correctly and fetchmail has established that there's an email for you.

fetchmail: SMTP connect to localhost failed

This is the problem. fetchmail will deliver fetched mail to your local mail server. If it can't connect to it then it can't deliver the mail.

Having seen that error message my first thought was that you didn't have a mail server running on your machine. However, as per your original post, if you can use "mail" to send an email then it would appear that may be running a mail server.

To check ... type netstat -a | grep '^tcp.*LISTEN' . This will give you a list of the open tcp ports on your system. Look for a line with "smtp" in it. If it's present then there's a mail server running. If not, there's not.

Should that actually be mylocaluser or should I type in my local user? I think I got an error the second way, so it's currently the former.

Yes, it should be the username of your account.

Next time, try "fetchmail -vv" . This will give you more information on what's happening.

Regards,

Liam