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mailblink ver 0.7 (http://limestone.truman.edu/~dbindner/linuxware/)
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1. Overview.

Mailblink is a small program that was inspired by a similar beast
called mailleds.  I wrote it because mailleds didn't quite work
for me.  Its purpose is to monitor your incoming mail and blink 
one of the keyboard leds or the leds attached to your parallel port
when you have new mail.


2. How it works.

Mailblink monitors the last access and modification times of your
mailbox to determine when you have new mail.  Since it never
reads the mail file itself, it should not interfere with other
notification programs.  It also means that you can monitor a file
that you cannot actually read.  You may wish for example to
monitor the root mailbox for unread mail and just "su" when you
want to read it.

If run with a directory instead of a file, Mailblink counts the
number of files in that directory.  This makes it possible to monitor
your "new" directory if you use maildir format.

If you have a pop3 or an imap mailbox, Mailblink will periodically 
poll the server, login and ask for new mail. Note that most pop3
servers cannot distinguish between read and unread mails because
you normally delete a mail from the server after fetching it.
So use imap if possible.

Up to eleven files, directories or mail accounts may be monitored 
(since there are 3 leds on a keyboard and 8 databits on the 
parallel port).

3. Things you might not quite expect.

If mailblink detects subsequent updates to your mailbox, it
will increment the number of blinks the led makes.  This is not a
perfect count of your messages, since you may receive two
messages between intervals which will only be counted one time.
It is also possible for a single message to be counted twice if
it happens to be only half saved when mailblink checks the file.
With these disclaimers aside, roughly more blinks means more mail
for you to read.  With directories, this is not a problem,
because the number of files is always the number of messages.

4. Compiling and Installing

Well, one can hope this is simple enough to compile without fuss
(there are some warning messages on some systems that appear not
to cause any harm) by typing:

 > make

You need to be root to install:

 > make install

5. Running

The simplest way to run mailblink is with:

 > mailblink

By default the program will monitor the file specified in your
MAIL environment variable every 30 seconds and blink the scroll
lock led when it has been modified.

To remove (kill) the program you just started, you should be able
to type:

 > mailblink -k

To watch the file /home/don/Mail/mylist at 60s intervals and
blink the numlock key you can type:

 > mailblink -f /home/don/Mail/mylist -d 60 -l num

And to kill this you can type:

 > mailblink -k -l num

To poll an imap mailbox and blink the led attached to your first 
parport data bit (between pin25=GND and pin2=DATA0):

 > echo ">>imap.server.org username passwd" > ./imap1.cfg
 > chmod 0600 ./imap1.cfg
 > mailblink -p ./imap1.cfg -d 600 -l parport0

To debug it in case it doesn't work:

 > mailblink -p ./imap1.cfg -d 30 -l num -Dvvvvv