Pitt Postmaster FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Pine at Pitt
2. Mail addresses for users of Network Services at Pitt
3. Finding email addresses
4. Mail forwarding
5. Finger "plan"
6. Unwanted or Offensive Mail Messages or News Articles
7. What ACLs are necessary for mail delivery
8. Notification of new mail
9. Network addresses of POP server, SMTP server, etc.
10. What does "Relaying Denied" Mean?
11. Reading mail from the Network Services POP server
12. Why can't I receive/send large mail messages?
13. Reading mail from the Network Services IMAP server
14. VMS mail or pine reports more new messages than actual...
15. Non-Delivery Notices (Rejection Messages)
16. How to include a signature in outgoing mail and news
17. VMS Mail topics
18. How to report problems and ask questions

Pine at Pitt

For information just about pine, see the main index for pine information.

Mail addresses for users of Network Services at Pitt

• user+@pitt.edu


This is the address which is normally associated with Network Services UNIX services. The "+" is required to ensure proper mail delivery to the correct user. Do not use the "+" in other addresses unless you know that the system in question accepts it.
 
 

• user@vms.cis.pitt.edu


This is the address which is normally associated with the Network Services VMS service.
 
 

• user@pop.pitt.edu


This is the address which is normally associated with the Network Services POP mail delivery service, but usually mail is forwarded from one or both of the VMS and UNIX addresses to this address. Please do not send to addresses of this type unless you know that the user in questions uses it.

Note: since it is generally preferred that POP users publish their user+@pitt.edu address in preference over their user@pop.pitt.edu address, sometimes there is confusion over whether the POP username is user or user+ (with a plus). The POP username is just user without the plus.
 

• user@imap.pitt.edu


This is the address which will is associated with the Network Services IMAP mail delivery service, but usually mail is forwarded from one or both of the VMS and UNIX addresses to this address. Do not send to addresses of this type unless you know that the user in questions uses it. Users do not currently have mailboxes on the IMAP server by default. See below for details.

Finding email addresses

Finding addresses at Pitt

Additionally, you can use the finger command on the Network Services UNIX and VMS systems to see information about users on those systems.

Finding addresses outside of Pitt

As always, you can send mail to the Postmaster to help you find users, both at Pitt and elsewhere.

Mail forwarding

Be careful to avoid creating mail forwarding loops, which occur when mail is forwarded from one address to another, and back again to the original address.

• Forwarding your mail from pitt.edu

login on one of the Network Services UNIX services (such as unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and use the "forward" command:

$ forward user@new.site.edu
The forwarding address for user droopy in cell pitt.edu will be established
as ``user@new.site.edu''

When you run the forward command this way, you actually generate a request to change your mail forwarding. The request will usually be processed within one day. You will receive a mail message confirming your request. It will be sent to your old forwarding address, or to your user+@pitt.edu address if you hadn't already established mail forwarding.

You can also use the forward command to see where your mail is forwarded to:

$ forward -r
user@new.site.edu

If you wish to change your present mail forwarding, or alter a request that you made by typing the forward command prematurely, just run the forward command again. Each time you run the command, your new request replaces the old ones.

If you want to cancel your present mail forwarding, type:

$ forward -z
The forwarding address for user droopy in cell pitt.edu will be established as ``''.

Note: there is supposed to be nothing between the output from the forward command, which might be confusing. If the mail forwardinging field in your White Pages entry (which the forward command requests to be modified) contains an email address, mail will be forwarded there. If it is empty, mail will be delivered locally. That's why a request for no forwarding results in an "empty" forwarding address.

If you want to forward your mail and keep a copy in your user+@pitt.edu Mailbox, you need to use a special address syntax to avoid creating mail forwarding loops:

$ forward +dir-insert+~/Mailbox, user@new.site.edu
The forwarding address for user droopy in cell pitt.edu will be established
as ``+dir-insert+/afs/pitt.edu/usr15/droopy/Mailbox@pitt.edu, user@new.site.edu''

For more help about the forward command, type:

$ help forward

• Forwarding your mail from vms.cis.pitt.edu

login on one of the Network Services VMS nodes and use the VMS MAIL utility:

$ MAIL
MAIL> SET FORWARD IN%"""user@new.site.edu"""

Notice that more quotation marks were required in the "SET FORWARD" command than you might expect. VMS normally strips off quotes when commands are entered, but the address following IN% requires quotation marks. So, the original quotation marks are doubled before adding the outer set. This is just the way quoting works on VMS.

VMS mail forwarding takes effect immediately.

You can also use a VMS mail command to see where your mail is currently forwarded to:

$ MAIL
MAIL> SHOW FORWARD

For more information, TYPE/PAGE, EDIT/READ or PRINT the file:

DOC:MAIL_FORWARD.DOC

• Forwarding your mail from pop.pitt.edu

login on one of the Network Services UNIX services (such as unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and create a file called ".forward.pop" in your home directory:

$ cd
$ echo user@new.site.edu >.forward.pop

This forwarding takes effect immediately.

This file must not be a symbolic link; it must be a regular file, and it must not be world-writable.

Note: If you have restricted the ACL on your home directory so that system:anyuser does not have "rl", you must place your .forward.pop file in your "public" directory. That directory is initially created with the correct ACL (system:anyuser has rl) so that unauthenticated processes can access it. In all cases, system:anyuser must at least have "l" on your home directory for this to work.

You can see where your POP mail is being forwarded to by simply listing the contents of the .forward.pop file:

$ cd
$ cat .forward.pop

If you have a restrictive ACL on your home directory:

$ cd $HOME/public
$ cat .forward.pop

• Forwarding your mail from imap.pitt.edu

login on one of the Network Services UNIX services (such as unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and create a file called ".forward.imap" in your home directory:

$ cd
$ echo user@new.site.edu >.forward.imap

This forwarding takes effect immediately.

This file must not be a symbolic link; it must be a regular file, and it must not be world-writable.

Note: If you have restricted the ACL on your home directory so that system:anyuser does not have "rl", you must place your .forward.pop file in your "public" directory. That directory is initially created with the correct ACL (system:anyuser has rl) so that unauthenticated processes can access it. In all cases, system:anyuser must at least have "l" on your home directory for this to work.

You can see where your IMAP mail is being forwarded to by simply listing the contents of the .forward.imap file:

$ cd
$ cat .forward.imap

If you have a restrictive ACL on your home directory:

$ cd $HOME/public
$ cat .forward.imap

Users do not currently have mailboxes on the IMAP server by default. See below for details.

Finger "plan"

• Finger "plan" on Network Services UNIX services (finger user+pitt.edu)

login on one of the Network Services UNIX services (such as unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and use your preferred editor (such as vi, emacs or pico) to create a file called ".plan" in your home directory:

$ cd
$ pico .plan

When you save your changes, the can be seen when other users finger your account.

The file must be readable to be viewed by others. For Network Services UNIX users, this means that the ACL on your home directory must permit system:anyuser read and lookup (rl) rights. If you maintain a stricter ACL on your home directory, then put your ".plan" file in your public directory. The public directory must allow system:anyuser rl and your home directory must allow system:anyuser l.

• Finger "plan" on Network Services VMS services (finger user@vms.cis.pitt.edu)

login on one of the Network Services VMS nodes (vms.cis.pitt.edu) and use the editor to create a file called ".PLAN" in your login directory:

$ SET DEFAULT SYS$LOGIN
$ EDIT .PLAN

The file must be readable to be viewed by others. For Network Services VMS users, this means that protection on your home directory must permit WORLD EXECUTE (W:E) access, and the ".PLAN" file itself must allow WORLD READ (W:R) access.

Unwanted or Offensive Mail Messages or News Articles

If it is an unwanted mail message, reply to it, asking that the sender not include you in any future mailings. (Many times though, especially in the case of UCE or Unsolicited Commercial Email or "spam", the return address will have been forged or will be otherwise invalid.) If this is a repeat occurrence, or the message was clearly not sent as a mistake, you should include abuse+@pitt.edu and abuse at the sender's site as recipients. As a convenience, there is a mail domain set up for writing to the appropriate "abuse" address automatically (since many sites still do not use the RFC2142 abuse address): abuse.net.

If it is an offensive news article (or message on a mailing list), but it is still within the charter of the group or list, it would probably be best to ignore it. The "kill" facility of most newsreaders is very handy for this very situation.

When necessary, complaints should be sent to the administrators at the offending site. Remember that complaints based on content are going to come up against First Amendment type arguments, so pursue them only when absolutely necessary. If the postmaster at the site is not responsive, try writing to the zone contacts. Postmaster at your local site can be helpful, but ultimately, we can only ask for assistance from the offender's site.

If you are complaining about electronic mail, be sure to include a copy of the offending message(s), including all of the lines of the header. If you are complaining about a USENET News post, be sure to at least include the Message-Id:. The "article number" is useless, since it varies from site to site.

If the message in question contains a personal threat, or is otherwise legally actionable, you might just consider persuing the problem by legal means. It is a very good idea to try to establish the identity of the other person before doing so, however. Reply to the message and contact the postmaster at the other site, because email can be forged and the person sending the mail might be someone different from the one identified in the return addresss.

For more information on an organization which proposes to make UCE (spam) illegal, see Join the Fight Against Spam!.

What ACLs are necessary for mail delivery?

AFS Overview

Organization of your directory

• $HOME

Your home directory must permit at least "lookup" access for mail delivery to work.

$ fs la $HOME
Access list for /afs/pitt.edu/usr15/droopy is
Normal rights:
  system:anyuser rl
  droopy rlidwka

• Mailbox

The Mailbox directory is used by the Andrew Message System (AMS) to put new mail messages sent to you. The Andrew Message System is an electronic mail and bulletin board tool that was designed for a distributed environment. Do not delete this directory.

$ fs la Mailbox
Access list for Mailbox is
Normal rights:
  system:authuser lik
  system:anyuser l
  droopy rlidwka

• .MailboxDirectory

pine has been specially modified at Pitt to append messages from Mailbox to a file called "mailbox" in this directory. This is your INBOX.

$ fs la .MailboxDirectory
Access list for .MailboxDirectory is
Normal rights:
  droopy rlidwka

• mail

The mail directory is where pine stores mail messages.

$ fs la mail
Access list for mail is
Normal rights:
  droopy rlidwka

Notification of new mail

• On VMS, users will see a message similar to the following when they login:

            You have 36 new Mail messages.

Users will see a message similar to the following when they receive new mail while logged in:

New mail on node AXPVM2 from AXPVMS::DROOPY

This notification will be accompanied by a "beep". You can disable this notification of mail while logged in by entering the following command:

$ SET BROADCAST=NOMAIL

If you enter this into your LOGIN.COM file, it will take effect each time you login, but you will still be notified that you have new mail each time you login.
• On UNIX, users will see a message similar to the following when they login:

You have 4 unread Andrew messages.

Unless you set up a mechanism to inform you of newly-arrived mail during the time you are logged in, you will not be notified automatically of its presence. Here are some suggestions on how to set up something like this:
• xbiff

The from command has been modified at Pitt to report on messages waiting in Mailbox, and to also be able to return an exit status appropriate for use with xbiff. xbiff is an X11 client which is designed to notify the user of new mail. It requires an X11 display. Traditionally, it looks for new mail in /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail), but it can be tailored to work in our environment.

Add the following resources to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources (or whatever file you keep your X resources in):

XBiff*onceOnly:true
XBiff*checkCommand:/usr/pitt/bin/from -q

Type xrdb -merge .Xresources to make these resources active and then type xbiff & to start xbiff.

Type man xbiff and man from for more information.

• bash

If your login shell is bash, you can use the PROMPT_COMMAND variable to define a command sequence which is run before every command prompt printed by bash. Most users would consider this to be too frequent to check for new mail, so you can define this command creatively to permit a larger interval between checks for new mail.

The following command (which can be added to .bash_profile or .bashrc) will check mail once in about every 32 prompts. You can change it to suit your needs, of course.

PROMPT_COMMAND='[ "$[$RANDOM%32]" -eq 23 ] && from'

Type man bash for more information about the PROMPT_COMMAND and RANDOM variables and about bash itself. Note that the MAIL* variables are unlikely to be of any use in our environment.
• tcsh

If your login shell is tcsh, you can use the periodic alias and tperiod variable to define a command sequence which is run periodically. The periodic alias defines the command to be executed and the tperiod variable specifies the minimum interval between executions of the command.

The following commands (which can be added to .login or .cshrc) will cause tcsh to check new mail about once every half hour. You can change it to suit your needs, of course.

set tperiod = 30
alias periodic from

Type man tcsh for more information about the periodic alias and the tperiod variable and about tcsh itself. Note that the mail variable is unlikely to be of any use in our environment.
You can disable the login check for new mail on UNIX by creating a file called .hushlogin in your home directory. If you create this file, the display of the "message of the day" will also be suppressed. If you use .hushlogin, you should set up some other mechanism to check for new mail and see the system messages.

If you use pine, you can probably arrange for /usr/pitt/etc/ams-to-pine-inbox to be called periodically to read in mail from your Mailbox directory and place it into your pine INBOX. If you were to set the variables your shell checks for new mail to point to the pine INBOX, the shell's new mail notification would work as it would with traditional UNIX-style mail delivery.

Network addresses of POP server, SMTP server, etc.

smtp.pitt.edu

The address of the Network Services POP server is:

pop.pitt.edu

Note: since it is generally preferred that POP users publish their user+@pitt.edu address in preference over their user@pop.pitt.edu address, sometimes there is confusion over whether the POP username is user or user+ (with a plus). The POP username is just user without the plus.

The adddress of the Network Services IMAP server is:

imap.pitt.edu

What does "Relaying Denied" Mean?

On just one day in the summer of 1997, fully 19% of the mail traffic on the three machines which provide the incoming mail service on PITT.EDU was the result of one UCE site sending its spam through us.

Due to the need to prevent spammers from overtaxing our mail services, and also the need to allocate resources efficiently, we are now beginning to require that any outgoing mail relaying be done through SMTP.PITT.EDU instead of through our other mail servers.

SMTP.PITT.EDU has existed for quite some time, and has been the "correct" SMTP server setting all along. It is only now that this is becoming required.

So, if you are trying to use PITT.EDU (e.g.,) for your SMTP server and your messages are being rejected with the error "Relaying Denied", all you need to do is change the SMTP server setting to the correct SMTP.PITT.EDU.

There will be restrictions on the use of SMTP.PITT.EDU too, but they will be to limit access to valid Pitt or UPMC network addresses.

Reading mail from the Network Services POP server

There are two steps which need to be performed in order for you to be able to send and receive electronic mail using your desktop email client program and Network Services systems..

Forward your user+@pitt.edu mail to user@pop.pitt.edu. Login on one of the Network Services UNIX services hosts (unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and type:

$ forward user@pop.pitt.edu

Make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word user as shown here.

This mail forwarding request will take up to one day to take effect.

Configure your POP mail client as follows:

POP username: user
POP server: pop.pitt.edu
sometimes these are specified as POP account: user@pop.pitt.edu

SMTP server: smtp.pitt.edu

See the preceding section concerning relaying to see why it is important to use the correct SMTP server.

Return address: user+@pitt.edu

NNTP server: usenet.pitt.edu (optional)

Finger server: directory.pitt.edu (optional)
ph server: directory.pitt.edu (optional)

Again, make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word user as shown above.

Why can't I receive/send large mail messages?

Currently, only the Network Services POP server (pop.pitt.edu) enforces this limit, for incoming mail. A mail message larger than 2MB in size destined for pop.pitt.edu will be returned to the sender with an explanation that the "Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size (2097152)". Eventually, however, all Network Services mail services will enforce this limit, both for incoming mail, and outgoing mail.

This limit is enforced because mail delivery systems, mail client (programs), and mail transfer agents are not designed to handle extremely large mail messages. Mail delivery systems are designed to handle large volumes of small mail messages, and are specifically optimized for that purpose. Extremely large mail messages often cause mail delays (ranging from moderate to severe) for all other messages routed through a particular delivery system. It is unfair to allow a small number of customers to noticeably degrade the performance of a public service which a great many customers use and rely upon.

Additionally, individual mail clients (programs) often do not cope well with extremely large mail messages, and may hang or crash. (Limitations with mail clients surface most frequently with pop mail clients.)

Customers who need a method to transfer large files should consider using FTP or HTTP, which are specifically suited to transferring large files.

Reading mail from the Network Services IMAP server

Users do not currently have mailboxes on the IMAP server by default. To get one, users can create their own mailbox with the "create-imap-inbox" command on any of the Network Services Unix Timesharing Service machines.

Login to the Network Services Unix Timesharing Service with your NAA (Network Authorization Account) Username and then at the prompt:

(4) unixs3 $ create-imap-inbox
Create your IMAP mailbox on IMAP.PITT.EDU? [n] y

IMAP disk quota: 0 used of 10000 Kbytes

You may now wish to forward your mail to the IMAP server, or you may
wish to forward it later.  The forward request will take effect by the
day after you make it.

Forward your mail to the IMAP server now? [n] y

The forwarding address for user droopy in cell pitt.edu will be established as ``droopy@imap.pitt.edu''.

Remember, the forward request will take effect by tomorrow.

We recommend that you also forward any mail that may be addressed to
your POP mailbox.

Forward droopy@pop.pitt.edu to droopy+@pitt.edu? [y] y

We recommend that you also forward any mail that may be addressed to
your VMS mailbox, if you haven't already done so.

To forward your VMS mail, login on VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU and type:

  MAIL
  SET FORWARD IN%"""droopy+@pitt.edu"""
  EXIT

Your VMS mail forwarding will take effect immediately.

(5) unixs3 $

$ create-imap-inbox
Create your IMAP mailbox on IMAP.PITT.EDU? [n] y

Enter your Network Authorization Account username.  If your username
already appears in [square brackets], just press RETURN to accept it
as the default.

username: [droopy] 


Enter your Network Authorization Account password.  It will not be
echoed and you will only be prompted for it once.  The password is
case-sensitive.

droopy password: 

Note: Your IMAP mailbox is immediately ready for use. Only the forwarding take overnight to be processed.

For more information about the Network Services IMAP service, see the CIS IMAP Project web page.

There are two steps which need to be performed in order for you to be able to send and receive electronic mail using your desktop email client program (which must be IMAP-capable--see The IMAP Connection for client information) and the CIS IMAP mail service.

Forward your user+@pitt.edu mail to user@imap.pitt.edu. Login on one of the Network Services UNIX services hosts (unixs.cis.pitt.edu) and type:

$ forward user@imap.pitt.edu

Make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word user as shown here.

This mail forwarding request will take up to one day to take effect.

Configure your IMAP mail client as follows:

IMAP username: username
Make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word username.

IMAP server: imap.pitt.edu

IMAP inbox: INBOX
In pine, this is specified as {imap.pitt.edu}INBOX

IMAP folder prefix: user.username. or INBOX.
Make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word username.

IMSP server: imsp.pitt.edu (but not implemented)

ACAP server: (none yet)

SMTP server: smtp.pitt.edu
imap.pitt.edu cannot be used as an SMTP relay.
Use a different SMTP server if you're not connecting via PittNet. See the preceding section concerning relaying to see why it is important to use the correct SMTP server.

Return address: username+@pitt.edu (assuming mail is forwarded)
Make sure to specify your actual username instead of the word username.

NNTP server: usenet.pitt.edu

Finger server: directory.pitt.edu (optional)

ph server: directory.pitt.edu (optional)

VMS mail or pine reports more new messages than actual...

• On VMS, this is a common problem, caused by deleting MAIL.MAI.

 

 

To reset the new mail counter, first make sure you really have no new mail, then type READ/NEW in VMS mail:

$ MAIL

You have 1 new message.

MAIL> READ/NEW
%MAIL-W-NONEWMAIL, no new messages

The mail counter has now been reset.
• On Network Services UNIX systems, this is not a common problem, but it can happen if a non-mail file is inserted into your Mailbox directory, or if your disk quota is exceeded during an attempt to deliver new mail.

 

 

If you know your way around UNIX, then you can look for empty files in Mailbox which are a day or more old and remove them. You can also look for files which don't belong in the Mailbox directory. Ordinarily, files in this directory (each of which is a new mail message) have long, cryptic-looking filenames like Ejn:fsC8XfY=56qk9V. If you see files here with names which are not similar to this (18-character gibberish), then you should move them to another directory.

Note: before using UNIX commands directly on the files in Mailbox, be sure you know what you are doing, since you could accidentally delete your new mail! If you have any doubts, contact the Postmaster about your problem or see the user consultant.

Pine and the normal AMS mail clients will delete these files if they are old enough that delivery attempts would no longer be possible.

Non-Delivery Notices (Rejection Messages)

There are a few very important items to consider when dealing with email non-delivery notices:

The text of the non-delivery notice is important!

You must read the additional text that has been added to your message. Sometimes the notice does not include the original message, just the additional text.

What site generated the non-delivery notice?

Most likely, the message will be from an address such as MAILER-DAEMON@site.dom, where site.dom is a) your local system, b) your SMTP server, c) the recipient site, or d) a machine handling mail for the recipient site. Look at the From: header for this information.

Will delivery attempts continue?

This is important, because some delivery problems are transient. You usually can just wait for the message to be delivered.

What was the reason cited for the non-delivery notice?

If the additional text (or sometimes the Subject: header) indicates that the mail was "returned" without any indication that further delivery attempts will be made, then you will need to try sending the message again, after investigating and/or correcting the problem. Typical reasons for such failures are "host unknown", meaning that the recipient site is unknown to site.dom; and "user unknown", meaning that the recipient user is unknown at the recipient site.

Many times, the notice will indicate that the message will be retried until a specific amount of time has passed, usually 5 to 10 days total. Typical reasons for such delays are "connection refused", meaning that the recipient site is not accepting connections for new mail; "connection timed out" meaning that the recipient is temporarily unavailable; and "nameserver lookup timeout", meaning that the servers containing information on how to contact the recipient site are temporarily unavailable.

What can you do about it?

In all cases, be sure that you addressed your message correctly. Refer again to the written or electronic source from which you obtained the address. Keep in mind that errors can be made in writing addresses on pieces of paper and also in electronic media. Also, the return addresses on messages can be set incorrectly, so replying to a message isn't guaranteed to work all of the time.

If you need help resolving the delivery problem, you should try to contact the most appropriate person to assist you:

Consider visiting your user consultants or system administrators.

If the reason the message was returned was "user unknown" and you have verified the address you used, write to postmaster@rcptsite.dom, where rcptsite.dom is the mail domain of your intended recipient.

For just about any other reason, you should write to postmaster@site.dom, where site.dom is the site that issued the non-delivery notice. See item 2 above.

Do not reply to a non-delivery notice thinking that it will be recieved by the originally intended recipient. If you reply to such a notice, it will generally be received by the Postmaster at the site which generated the notice.

How to include a signature in outgoing mail and news

• On Network Services UNIX systems

create a file called .signature in your home directory. Most utilities (including pine and trn) will include the text automatically in your outgoing messages.
• On the Network Services VMS system

VMS MAIL doesn't include support for signature files. You can explicitly include the text in each outgoing message.

If you define the logical name PMDF_SIGNATURE with the value of the name of the file containing your "signature" information, outgoing messages from VMS which are sent via the IN% mechanism will include the text in the file at the bottom.

The VMS newsreader uses the logical name MAIL_SIGNATURE for mail and news. Additionally, there is a user profile option for this. Type HELP NEWS_settings from within the VMS newsreader for more information.

You can learn more about .signature files in the "Signature, Finger, & Customized Headers FAQ".

VMS Mail topics

Exchanging mail messages with users on other systems

All of the header information normally hidden from the user but necessary for tracking the progress of the mail from one system to another is displayed to the VMS user in the body of the message. Oftentimes, a VMS user will have to scroll through a couple of screens of headers before seeing the actual message.

The VMS mail utility does not currently understand multi-media (MIME) formatted messages. To the VMS user, even a simple message sent from a pine user might look like complete gibberish. In a pinch, the PMDF MAIL utility might be used to read such messages, but the PMDF MAIL utility is considered "unsupported". It does have several advantages over VMS mail, however...

First time VMS mail users

will not have a MAIL folder. Many times they think this is a problem, but it is not, because the MAIL folder will be created when they receive their first mail message:

$ mail

MAIL> dir
%MAIL-E-NOTEXIST, folder MAIL does not exist

will find that as time goes by, they have an increasing number of files in their home directory ending with the file extension .MAI. Each one of these contains the body of a mail message. The user might try to delete these files in an attempt to reclaim some disk space, but they will be unable to, because the default protections on these files do not allow delete access.

The user should not delete these files using VMS commands, but rather, should delete the files in VMS MAIL and PURGE them to reclaim the space.

Users should almost always put their mail files in a subdirectory, where they will be less likely to delete them unintentionally, or otherwise alter them:

MAIL> SET MAIL_DIR [.MAIL]
%MAIL-I-CREATED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL] created

After doing this, all *.MAI files are in the [.MAIL] subdirectory.

Reclaiming disk space used by deleted mail files

MAIL> show all
Your mail file directory is USR9:[RMX.MAIL].
Your current mail file is USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1.
No folder is currently selected.
The wastebasket folder name is WASTEBASKET.
Mail file USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1
        contains 424 deleted message bytes.

MAIL> purge/reclaim
%MAIL-I-RECLPLSWAIT, reclaiming deleted file space.  Please wait...
%MAIL-I-DELMSGS, 0 messages deleted

AIL> compress
%MAIL-S-CREATED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 created
%MAIL-S-COPIED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1 copied to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 (1 record)
%MAIL-S-RENAMED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1 renamed to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.OLD;1
%MAIL-S-RENAMED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 renamed to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1

This operation should be done regularly, but if mail is received at the time of the COMPRESS operation, it could be lost, so take care.

If the compress operation would put the user over his disk quota, the compress will fail. The user can run a Pitt-specific command from the VMS DCL prompt to compress his mail file in this case:

$ RUN SYS:MAIL_COMPRESS
%MAIL-I-RECLPLSWAIT, reclaiming deleted file space.  Please wait...
%MAIL-S-CREATED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 created
%MAIL-S-COPIED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1 copied to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 (1 record)
%MAIL-S-RENAMED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1 renamed to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.OLD;1
%MAIL-S-RENAMED, USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL_6985_COMPRESS.TMP;1 renamed to USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.MAI;1


Old mail file was successfully deleted: USR9:[RMX.MAIL]MAIL.OLD;1

Note also it might be wise for users to always use SYS:MAIL_COMPRESS, because using COMPRESS from within VMS mail when it would take the user over his disk quota can be messy to clean up.

Deleting *.MAI files

Additional information

The RIDC Operations Staff has some other information about topics, including how to request that accidentally-deleted *.MAI files be restored.

How to report problems and ask questions

postmaster@pitt.edu

POSTMASTER

It is very important that your correspondence with Postmaster concerning mail problems and questions include as much information and detail as possible.You should include a copy of any relevant mail rejection messages. You should also include a description of what you think the problem is. If you don't, the resolution of your problem might be delayed because we have to send mail back to you asking for information that was omitted.

The most important part of an email message for the purpose of tracking down mail problems is the header--the many lines of "garbage" at the beginning of the message. Many mail programs (such as pine) hide most of this from you, but it usually takes up the first few pages of VMS mail messages. If you do not want to resend personal or confidential messages to Postmaster, simply edit out the body of the message, but do not alter the headers:

In all cases, insert your description of the problem at the top of the message, and edit out the message body (if you feel you need to) but do not remove the headers.

In pine, you can use the 'F' key to forward the rejection message to postmaster@pitt.edu.

In order to see the important parts of the messages as indicated above, you must use the 'H' command to enable 'full headers' before forwarding the message.

Select the problem message as the current one in the folder index. Normally, the entry will be highlighted on your screen.

Press 'H'. Pine should display a message indicating that the display of full headers is now on. Press 'H' again if it indicates that it is now off.

Press 'F' to forward the message. Pine will ask if you want to forward the message as an attachment. Answer 'Y' for 'yes'.

Note: if you want to edit out the body of the returned message, you need to answer 'N' for 'no' here.

Enter postmaster@pitt.edu in the To: field.

Describe the problem in the 'Message Text' part of the screen and press '^X' to send the message. Please put your description before the headers of the original message if you have chosen to include it as text instead of as an attachment.

In VMS MAIL, simply FORWARD/EDIT the message to POSTMASTER.

In messages, choose "Forward To" from the "This Message" menu and enter the address postmaster@pitt.edu.

In Pegasus Mail, expose the headers and then forward the message to postmaster@pitt.edu.

To expose the headers, press 'h' in the DOS version (this command should appear in the menu at the bottom of the screen) or select "Show Header" from the "Message" menu in the Windows version.


In Eudora for the Macintosh, expose the headers and then forward the message to postmaster@pitt.edu.

To expose the headers, press the button labeled "Blah Blah Blah".


In Eudora for the IBM PC, expose the headers and then forward the message to postmaster@pitt.edu.

To expose the headers, go under Tools menu, then under options, then to Fonts and Display and enable the "show all headers (even the ugly ones)" option.

Postmaster Home Page

Send your comments and questions about this document to postmaster@pitt.edu. Please make sure that your web browser is configured with your correct return address.

The email addresses and/or "mailto:" URLs in this document have been provided to accomodate serious reports and inquiries concerning electronic mail at the University of Pittsburgh. They are specifically not here to be targets of mass mailings, so do not use them for such a purpose.

Copyright © 1995,1996,1997,1998,1999 University of Pittsburgh.
All rights reserved.