PACKAGE(1)PACKAGE(1)NAMEpackage - register package user via mailagent
SYNOPSISpackage address system version patchlevel [ mailpatches | notifypatches
]
DESCRIPTION
This command is not intended to be run directly by a user, but may
appear in any mail whose subject is set to Command. Such mail will be
processed by the mailagent(1), which will extract all lines beginning
with @SH, which may specify this command. The mailagent first sets
environment variables that will be used by the command.
Package is used to notify the author of a package about its users. It
is normally generated automatically by the MailAuthor.U unit when the
user runs Configure.
If the patchlevel specified is not the latest for that system and ver‐
sion, mail is immediately sent suggesting that they upgrade and
remindng them how to request the latest patches.
The final parameter, if included may be set to mailpatches to specify
that the user would like to have future patches mailed to them, or
notifypatches to specify that a mail notification of future patches
should be sent, rather than the entire patch.
The user's address and notification request are saved in the file users
in the package's directory.
Package performs an approximate address match in order to avoid dupli‐
cate entries. Whenever this elimination occurs, a warning message is
issued in the logfile. Two addresses will be said equivalent if one of
them has an added machine name or if they are really equal. Therefore,
the following addresses are equivalent:
ram@acri.fr
ram@main.acri.fr
whereas the following two are not equivalent, unfortunately:
ram@acri.acri.fr
ram@main.acri.fr
When a user is asking to be left alone, it is important to let him know
if the request failed, because he will be annoyed when the next set of
patches is issued and he still gets them despite his previous request.
Therefore, if no approximate match occurs, a warning message is sent
back, with a list of addresses that are close to his own e-mail
address, but not equivalent. Fortunately, the following addresses are
considered close:
ram@acri.fr
ram@somewhere.com
raphael@main.acri.fr
manfredi@acri.acri.fr
because they either have the same login (important when someone changes
company) or share the same domain or sub-domain part.
In order to edit the users file, the edusers script should be used. For
one thing, it will let you edit the users file from whatever package
you name in the command line, but it will also properly lock the file
so that the execution of package will stall for the duration of the
manual edition (provided you have a strict locking policy defined in
your ~/.mailagent configuration file).
FORWARDING
Package supports command forwarding as described in the mailhelp(1)
page.
FILES
~/.mailagent configuration file for mailagent.
System/users list of users of that system.
This file consists of single line records, one for
each registered user. Each record consists of
three tab-separated fields.
The first field indicates the level of updates
requested by the user by a single letter as fol‐
lows:
M Mail future patches directly to the user
when they are issued.
N Notify the user of future patches.
U The users chose to let the author know that
they have tried the program, but does not
wish to know about future updates.
L The user is no longer interested in the pro‐
gram and wants to be left alone.
The second field is their last notified patch
level, or a dash (-) if it is not known.
The third field is the user's Email address.
Log/agentlog mailagent's log file
AUTHORS
Graham Stoney <greyham@research.canon.oz.au>
Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com> (minor enhancements)
SEE ALSOedusers(1), mailagent(1), metaconfig(1).
PACKAGE(1)
