If you cd to the directory you want to download a file to before you open
lynx it will automatically download into the current directory that you
opened lynx into. This is a nice feature which I use often. Also if you
download a file and you want it to go into a directory called foo you
would type foo/<name of file> If I'm downloading mp3 files I'll cd to
my directory called mp3 before I open up lynx. Whether you save a file or
download it this works the same. I'm assuming that you know about the p
command that takes you to a menu screen giving you options to choose from.
As an added touch I added a print option to my list. Actually you could
go the lynx.cfg options and add a option that would allow you to download
to a paticular directory if you want it that way. The possiblities are
endless. Also type the h command and you should see a help list. Reading
the lynx.cfg file is a good way to learn how lynx is setup. Good luck
with learning lynx. It's one of my favorite programs.
Here's an three part article that is very good in setting up
fetchmail. Use lynx to read it and if you want to find a word within the
file just use the / command. After that if you want to toggle with that
search word just use the n command. Good luck again.
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Beginner's Week: Notes from the Command-Line Commando: Fetchmail
by Michael & Melinda Petruzziello
Thursday September 27th, 2001
The Linux command line: The true power of the Linux server! (But is it for
the home user?)
The Linux command line is one of the most useful and versatile
features of your computer. It is powerful in the freedom it provides
the user or administrator. You can setup, run, revise, and tweak just
about any program that you can get for Linux. Add a secure telnet
session and presto! You have a simple, secure way to administer your
network from a remote location in ways that most operating systems
wouldn't allow without additional software or hardware. For example,
as those of you familiar with Linux probably already know, you can
setup, configure, and run Web, FTP, POP, and many other services right
from the command prompt.
Since we know that Linux has all this functionality for servers, where
does this leave the home user? Can the home user benefit from the
Linux command line just as much without having to rely on "gooey"
X-windows interfaces? I'm here to answer this question with a
resounding: "Yes!"
In this series of articles, I want to focus on how the home user can
benefit from Linux command line utilities for email, web browsing,
FTP, telnet, and even word processing and multimedia!
Since this is the first article in the series, let me give you a brief
overview of my computer experience, and my own personal Linux box.
Back In The Day
My humble computer experience began in Derry, New Hampshire, when my
uncle ordered the first do-it-yourself home ENIAC system. We had to
set it up in my uncle's barn. It wasn't much of a machine. Though
quite impressive in size, it had no memory and no data storage space.
My dreams of playing Wolfenstein 3D were less than what I'd hoped for.
It took us nearly four hours just to install the pre-alpha version,
and I was always running back and forth between switches Alpha-459 and
Zeta-006, and that was just to fire. Movement was nearly impossible.
I'd just have to hope that I'd materialize in a convenient-to-defend
corner every time I got fragged.
All right, all right! I didn't actually start out on an ENIAC (but it
sure did sound good, didn't it?) My first computer was the Atari 400.
Although not as impressive looking as the ENIAC, it did come in a
convenient size that would actually fit in your house. It had a
whopping 4 KB of RAM and a tape device for storing data. Not too bad,
since any old cassette would do in a pinch. Once you plugged in the
BASIC cartridge, it looked like it had a command prompt, but it was
actually just a BASIC interpreter. I was mildly disappointed by this,
but the fact that I had a 27-inch monitor was some compensation. In
addition to having no command line, the Atari 400 had other problems
as well. The keyboard was as flat as a tabletop, which made typing
more like drumming your fingers. This presented issues, since most
programs available for the Atari had to be typed in by hand and then
stored on tape, because the Atari 400 could only have one program
loaded into memory at any given time (multi-tasking, where are you?).
The most memorable system meltdown I ever had with my Atari was when I
was typing in the "Ghengis Khan" adventure game out of a magazine, and
about half-way through, my parents decided they wanted to watch
"Starsky and Hutch." Flipping the game switch on the back of the TV,
they disabled my 27-inch monitor and accidentally knocked out the
Atari's power cord, erasing all traces of the program from memory.
Blisters notwithstanding, I re-typed the whole program in the next
day, and it promptly did not work.
I went through several different Atari systems as time went on, some
of which even had real keyboards (no more blisters!), gooey
interfaces, and multi-tasking, but still no REAL command line
(waaaah!). Then one day, I saw an IBM 386, and there it was: a command
line! Multi-tasking was hopelessly beyond it, and it often said rude
things like "Invalid command: <A>bort, <R>etry, <I>gnore", and then
made funny little beeping sounds that I am convinced to this day
sounded like laughter. In spite of all this, I was still pleased. I
was finally experiencing a computing environment I enjoyed.
Finally, in 1996, I discovered a true multi-tasking, command-line
environment: Linux. I nearly fainted. Not only could I log in, I could
log in several times. I could FTP, Telnet, read email, and browse the
Web from different screens, all on the same computer. I was in
command-line heaven.
My Current Setup
In 1998, I started my own computer consulting firm,
http://www.JMPTechnologies.com. I work on Linux, SCO, and all versions
of Windows. While each OS has its place in the computing hierarchy,
when I come home, I like to sit down in front of my very own Linux
box. It's a Pentium 233 with 32 MB of RAM and a 4 GB hard drive
running RedHat 6.2. (I know, the distribution argument goes on and on,
but RedHat is the first one I ever used, and I've just stuck with it.)
I have my Linux box attached to my network with an NE2000 compatible
card, which is plugged into a Linksys Broadband/DSL router for
Internet access. Everyone else in the house is running that Windows
gooey thing (yuk!).
Next Page: Fetchmail Setup
Introduction (1) Fetchmail Setup (2) .fetchmailrc (3)
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Beginner's Week: Notes from the Command-Line Commando: Fetchmail
by Michael & Melinda Petruzziello
Thursday September 27th, 2001
(Continued - Page 2)
Finally: Fetchmail
Now that you've read about my computer experience and my Linux box,
it's time to get to the meat of this article: fetchmail, for personal
use.
One of the first things I wanted to do when I first set up my Linux
box was send and receive email. To read my email, I use Pine v4.21
(which I think is the latest version at this time). Sending and
receiving email to users on the system or in a network environment is
easy with Pine, but what if you want to receive email from a source
outside your network? Fetchmail is the answer.
First Things First
Make sure you have your Linux box set up for email support. You will
need to have at least three email utilities installed:
sendmail, the MDA (mail delivery agent)
fetchmail, for retrieving email from sources outside your network
pine, for reading and composing your email
When I installed RedHat 6.2, I selected these utilities as part of my
install. If you did not install these utilities during setup and you
use RedHat, install them from the RPMs included on your installation
CD. If you don't have a CD or if you are using a different version of
Linux, then you may have to get these files from the web. If you are
not sure if these packages are installed, try the following:
login: <username>
Password: *******
$ rpm -q sendmail <Enter>
You should see something like the following, if sendmail is installed:
sendmail-8.9.3-20
or you might see:
package sendmail is not installed
If the reply comes back "package not installed," then obviously the
package needs to be installed. Follow these steps to make sure
fetchmail and pine are installed also, and then take the appropriate
action necessary. Again, I am a RedHat guy, so this may vary on your
system.
All right! I got everything; let's get on with it!
Sendmail Setup
This section is very brief. If sendmail is installed properly on your
system, then its default settings should work just fine. If not
(ahhhhh!), check the various HOW-TO sites on the web. This I know,
however; RedHat's default sendmail installation works peachy
(gratuitous RedHat plug -- thank me later, Mr. Young).
All right, now that sendmail is setup, let's go on to pine.
Pine Setup
Here, we come to the easy part. Login and start pine. On the initial
screen, arrow down to Setup and press <Enter>. You will see a menu at
the bottom of the screen; press <C>. You will then see another menu.
The top three options are the ones we need to check:
- The top one is "personal-name." Highlight it by using the arrow keys
and press <C>. This will allow you to change the information there.
Type in your name, if it's not there already, and press <Enter>.
- The next one on the list is "user-domain". Highlight it and press
<C>. Type in the last part of your email address after the @ symbol
and then press <Enter>. For example, if your email address is
"frank at mail.server.com," you put "mail.server.com."
- The next one is "smtp-server". Highlight this, press <C>, type in
your SMTP (or outgoing mail) server name, and press <Enter>.
Press <E> to exit Setup. Pine will ask if you want to save changes;
type <Y>for yes, and you will find yourself back at the main menu.
Press <Q> to quit pine.
Fetchmail Setup
Fetchmail is a very powerful program and can handle various
email-related tasks. For example, I use fetchmail to handle all the
email of a major client of mine. Fetchmail goes out, grabs the mail,
and then separates it (this involves a script) into individual
mailboxes for each user. Employees login individually with a POP3
email client and get their mail. However, since this article is
focused on how to use fetchmail for your personal email, I will be
leaving most of the beefy stuff out for now.
Before you configure fetchmail, I recommend that you have a username
that is the same as your email login name. For example, if your email
address is "frank at mail.server.com," setup a username of "frank." I
highly recommend doing this because it keeps the confusion down. (As
we go through this example, you will see what I mean.)
OK, time to set things up. Let's start by logging in with the username
you will be using to receive the email (NOT as root). Now, there is
more than one way to invoke fetchmail. If you type:
fetchmail mail.server.com <Enter>
at the command prompt, fetchmail will prompt you for a password, and
then check for email (IMAP and POP3) at the server mail.server.com
with whatever username you happen to be logged in with. For example,
if you are logged in as "frank," it will check frank at mail.server.com.
If your email name is not the same as your username, don't give up
hope. If you are logged in as "frank," but your email address is
"franklin at mail.server.com," you can type this instead:
fetchmail -u franklin mail.server.com <Enter>
Then, fetchmail will contact mail.server.com using the IMAP and POP3
protocols, and try to login as "franklin." You will then be prompted
for your password. Type it in, press <Enter>, and presto! You've Got
Mail! (Ahhhh! Did I say that? Sorry!)
Let's say you're tired of fetchmail checking both the IMAP and POP3
protocols, because you only have a POP3 account. To get rid of the
IMAP error message you keep seeing, type:
fetchmail -p pop3 mail.server.com <Enter>
And, if your username is different than your login name, type:
fetchmail -p pop3 -u username mail.server.com <Enter>
You will then see a prompt for your password. Again, type it in, etc.,
etc., ad nauseam.
Now, if you're like me, you're not going to want to type all this
information in every single time you want to check your mail. And so,
we come to the subject of the .fetchmailrc file. Once you have a
.fetchmailrc file setup properly, you can just type:
fetchmail <Enter>
at the prompt.
Next Page: .fetchmailrc
Introduction (1) Fetchmail Setup (2) .fetchmailrc (3)
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Beginner's Week: Notes from the Command-Line Commando: Fetchmail
by Michael & Melinda Petruzziello
Thursday September 27th, 2001
(Continued - Page 3)
Let me show you how to set one up.
At the command prompt, use your favorite text editor (pico or vi or
whatever you like) to create a file in your HOME directory called
.fetchmailrc (don't forget the period!). Type in the following:
poll mail.server.com # your mail server name
protocol: pop3 # could be pop3, imap, or both, depending on your ISP
username: username # hopefully, the same as your login name
password: password # be aware, this can be seen by anyone with access
to your login
You may be concerned about the fact that your password is sitting in
clear text in this file. If you want to be prompted for your password
each time fetchmail checks your email, you can leave out the
"password" line in your .fetchmailrc file. Also, if your email
username is the same as your login name, you can omit the "username"
line from the .fetchmailrc file.
Now, save the file. Next, we need to use chmod to change the file
permissions. At the prompt, type:
chmod 710 .fetchmailrc <Enter>
Now type in:
fetchmail <Enter>
Fetchmail will check for email using all the information you specified
in the .fetchmailrc file, and download whatever email it finds into
your mailbox.
If you have new email (you will know by the status messages fetchmail
will display), then bring up pine, and press <I> to take a look at
your Inbox.
Another bonus of having a .fetchmailrc file is that if you want to
check more than one email account, on the same or even different
servers, all you have to do is add another section to the .fetchmailrc
file. (Snazzy, ain't it?)
Having said all that, I now say this: use the .fetchmailrc file. It
takes a little more time to setup initially, but you can't beat it for
ease of use or flexibility.
OK, now you've got your .fetchmailrc file setup, and you're checking
six of your high-volume email accounts just by typing in "fetchmail"
at the command prompt. Still, if you're like me, you're thinking about
how inconvenient it is to have to remember to type "fetchmail" every
time you want to check your email. "Isn't there some way we can
automate this?" you ask. The answer is "yes," and there are a couple
of ways to do it.
What I like to do is edit my login profile, .bash_profile. Some login
profiles differ in filename or other stuff based on what shell you're
using (I use bash), but work the same in general. Bring up your login
profile in your favorite editor, and add the following lines to the
end of the file:
echo Please wait checking mail!
fetchmail
Save the file, logout, and log back in again. This will run the
fetchmail program and go get your mail. (Neat-o, huh?)
"Hey, listen," you say, "are you trying to tell me I've gotta logout
and login every time I wanna check my mail? Come on, can't you do
better than THAT??" Again, I say, "Why, yes!" Instead of just adding
"fetchmail" to your login profile, you can add this instead:
fetchmail -d 120
Save the file, logout, and log back in. Every two minutes (120
seconds), fetchmail will check your email for you, without you having
to lift a finger. (If you don't feel like logging out to test this,
just run the command at the prompt.)
Now for a brief explanation of the change we just made. The -d starts
fetchmail as a daemon that runs in the background. The number after it
is the number of seconds it waits before it checks again. For example,
"fetchmail -d 900" would check mail every 15 minutes. If you type in
"fetchmail" while the daemon is running, you will wake the daemon. It
will check your mail immediately, and then wait for however many
seconds you specified the last time you ran "fetchmail -d." If you
decide you are sick of your fetchmail daemon running, type in:
fetchmail -quit <Enter>
at the command prompt. That will stop the rascal!
Well, I hope that was useful and informative; I aim to please. Wait!
Harken! Never mind; that was it. If you enjoyed this article and/or
found it useful, tune in next time to find out how to stream audio
over the Internet from your command line. No "gooey" needed!
Dear Reader: Since we penned this article, we've since upgraded to
RedHat 7.1 with the latest kernel. All of the instructions above still
work just fine.
? October 2000, Michael & Melinda Petruzziello
michael at jmptechnologies.com; melinda at jmptechnologies.com
Introduction (1) Fetchmail Setup (2) .fetchmailrc (3)
[ return to learn ]
Your Comments
Automatically running fetchmail when reading mail..
Comment by Mark Lord - 2001-09-30 11:23:57
On my home network, we've configured things such that anytime we
access the local mail machine to read mail (POP3), it kicks fetchmail
into action to look for new messages.. Rather than have to wait for it
to complete, the POP3 daemon continues normally in parallel, so I can
just click on "Get Mail" again a few seconds later to see if anything
new was just fetched.
Much better than waiting until the next scheduled fetchmail interval
happens by..
To make all this happen, I use this entry in /etc/inetd.conf:
pop-3 stream tcp nowait root pop+fetchmail /usr/sbin/ipop3d
/usr/sbin/ipop3d
where the pop+fetchmail program is compiled from source available from
my server at:
http://rtr.ca/pop+fetchmail.c
[ reply to comment ]
fetchmail lost my mail!
Comment by xact - 2001-09-28 04:09:53
I did 'fetchmail -p pop3 -u username mail.myserver.com' and it fetched
25 mails ... but WHERE the **** did my mails go? Cant figure this out.
Got qmail doing the MTA work, using mutt as the client. Help me out!
just lost 25 importante' emails!
[ reply to comment ]
* Re: fetchmail lost my mail! - wax (Replies: 0)
Nice Article
Comment by Brett - 2001-09-27 18:54:34
Don't forget adding fetchmail to crond!
I have it check my mail every hour on the hour. I like that better
than using the fetchmail daemon.
There is also a X11 program that will assist you in configuring
fetchmail; it's called "fetchmailconf", and can be very useful.
I love my fetchmail.
[ reply to comment ]
Good Article on old school UNIX
Comment by Smileyq - 2001-09-27 16:55:12
This article is a good reference for the good old school and command
line UNIX. I wish more and more UNIX users would stay away from the
GUI until they know about the system and its console based utilities.
Oh the power of UNIX!
[ reply to comment ]
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The Weaving Beaver
rclowdus at kcnet.com
"Chop your own firewood and it will warm you twice."
"Weave your own cloth and it will reward you twice."
On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Thomas Ward wrote:
> Hi, just a few simple questions here. I am sure anyone from this list should
> be able to answer them.
> I now have ppp working using wvdial, and I am able to brouse the web using
> lynx. However, now I need to config lynx.
> How do I set lynx up to go to a personal home page, and also to setup where
> i want the downloads to go. I downloaded something, but I thought it would
> automatacally go into the home directory. I can not find the file, or how to
> change it so it goes into my /home/tward/downloads directory.
> Another thing I have discovered is that I setup pine I am sending messages
> ok, but not recieving them. Any suggestions here?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
