Want my own mailcheck routine in bash

MicroAutoDev · 12-26-2005, 11:50 PM

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can tell me how to change the routine that is used by bash for checking mail. I am using fetchmail and alias files to load mail into a database. I would like to replace whatever it is that bash does every $MAILCHECK seconds to check for mail. I want to use my own code so it can check the database to determine if the user has new mail.

Any ideas?

I am running Debian 3.1.

Thanks

cyberjun · 12-27-2005, 01:01 AM

Hi,
From the bash man page:

Code:

       MAIL   If this parameter is set to a file name and the MAILPATH variable is not set, bash informs the user of the arrival of  mail  in
              the specified file.
       MAILCHECK
              Specifies  how  often  (in  seconds)  bash checks for mail.  The default is 60 seconds.  When it is time to check for mail, the
              shell does so before displaying the primary prompt.  If this variable is unset, or set to a value that is not a number  greater
              than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.
       MAILPATH
              A  colon-separated list of file names to be checked for mail.  The message to be printed when mail arrives in a particular file
              may be specified by separating the file name from the message with a `?'.  When used in the text of the message, $_ expands  to
              the name of the current mailfile.  Example:
              MAILPATH='/var/mail/bfox?"You have mail":~/shell-mail?"$_ has mail!"'
              Bash  supplies  a  default  value  for  this variable, but the location of the user mail files that it uses is system dependent
              (e.g., /var/mail/$USER).

Hope this helps. I think you will have to somehow change timestamps on a particular file whenever new mail comes.

cheers,
--cyberjun