Lab 4 and auto-answer

[Rich Simms]

I'm starting to get Lab 4 submittals, keep 'em coming!

I had one surprise today. Turns out you can automate responses to emails using "recipes" in a hidden file named .procmailrc. One student emailed me their submittal for Lab 4 using /bin/mail on Opus. I manually sent a reply back today and cc:ed myself. When I checked my mail again later I saw the reply I cc:ed myself on however their was another email from myself to myself, thanking me for submitting Lab 4 ?????? Turns out Jim had already installed a "recipe" in my .procmailrc that automatically replies to any messages with Lab 4 in the subject!

FYI, there are lots of example recipes in:
[url]http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl5_procmailex.htm[/url]

Note, for this lab I'm not expecting you to submit the answers using the email program (/bin/mail) on Opus. To submit Lab 4, just use your regular email program and send it to my email address as specified in the lab. If you are already comfortable with UNIX text editors you can use Opus and when you submit (email) you should get a fast reply.

While email can be sent from Opus to the outside world, mail from the outside world to Opus is blocked. Given we haven't covered UNIX text file editors yet I'm not expecting you to use vi for this lab assignment.