Can anyone give a recommendation for a simple X-based equivalent of mail / mailx for reading the mail I get from cron jobs?
3
- Do you mean solely X-based or simply a GUI app? If you need X-only, then ignore my answer below.Steven D– Steven D2010-08-30 16:54:25 +00:00Commented Aug 30, 2010 at 16:54
- 2I want something very simple which can read the mail from cron jobs only.delete– delete2010-08-30 23:32:49 +00:00Commented Aug 30, 2010 at 23:32
- Of course the easiest solution is to let cron send mail to a mail account that you already use, or let the local mailserver forward it to one...JanC– JanC2010-09-02 09:08:33 +00:00Commented Sep 2, 2010 at 9:08
Add a comment |
5 Answers
If you don't want Evolution nor Sylpheed, Thunderbird also allow to get /var/mail mail. You just have to create a new account and choose "movemail" as account type. See mozilla wiki for more info.
Evolution is fine, but heavy. Sylpheed is simpler and doesn't use as many resources.
- How can I read local mail with this?delete– delete2010-09-15 08:41:05 +00:00Commented Sep 15, 2010 at 8:41
- OK I found it: Configuration / Common preferences / Receive / Tick on "Incorporate from local spool".delete– delete2010-09-15 08:49:57 +00:00Commented Sep 15, 2010 at 8:49
Evolution can be set up to read system mail. When setting up an account, simply choose "Local Delivery" as the server type on the "Receiving Mail" portion of the setup. Then, on that same page, set the "Path" to /var/mail/ or wherever your mail spool is.
The "Local Delivery" option will delete the mail from /var/mail/. If you use the "Standard Unix mbox spool file" will not.
Whether or not you want to call Evolution "simple" is another matter.
You could write a shell script that calls a command-line mail tool and then uses notify-send, (g)xmessage or zenity to display the individual messages.
- That sounds a bit masochistic but maybe I will try it if sylpheed gets annoying.delete– delete2010-09-15 08:50:46 +00:00Commented Sep 15, 2010 at 8:50
exmh is a rather lightweight X-windows front end for mh, that will quite easily read your local mailbox.
