What happens when i use fetchmail?
my user name is hseritt... i have /var/spool/mail/hseritt set up
already... will the above directory act solely as an "inbox"
similar to nsmail or Mail's inbox (those are for netscape mail and kmail)
?

right now i have downloaded 3 messages from my pop3 server...
is there a trash bin for them or do i have to set them up my self?
i noticed that the emails were put into the above directory and not specified as separate files. any help would be greatly appreciated as i am trying to use linux on a box (an ancient 386) that has everything except for a real video card (no x of course!)

Yes, the mail you receive all goes into that file. They are appended to the end of the file as long as it exists, but you don't have to read them by catting that file, you can run the "mail" program to list the messages in it by number then just type the number to read that e-mail. To delete them you can type "d 1 (to delete e-mail #1) or d * (to delete all emails in the file)". There are also text-based e-mail readers "elm, pine, mutt" which should be on your distribution disks or you can download them in RPM format from www.rpmfind.net.

ok dude... i gotcha on the fetchmail now let me ask this since yu bring up pine et al...

if i use fetchmail to dl my pop3 mail then are you saying that i can use pine to view them? because i always wondered why pine doesnt have some equivelant of a "get mail" button or command similar to netscape mail...

thanks

Yes, fetchmail will get the mail and put it in /var/spool/mail/youruser and when you see the notification "you have mail in /var/spool/mail/youruser" you can run "pine" to read it. I don't have pine installed on the machine I'm on right now so I don't remember if it has a "get mail function" but you can go to http://www.washington.edu/pine/ (the pine homepage) for docs.