Mail Profile

Managing the user's MAIL database is not as involved as managing the account database. For the most part, MAIL takes care of itself. Occasionally, users get into trouble and the manager must intervene. Unfortunately, there are no OpenVMS programs to help the manager; however, a freeware package call MAILUAF does a fine job. With this program, the manager can usually spot the difficulty by displaying the user's mail profile. An example display of DMILLER's profile is as follows, and by using MAILUAF, these values can be changed easily. MAILUAF can be found in Hunter Goatly's OpenVMS software collection at www.process.com/openvms/index.html.

     MAILUAF> sho dmiller /full     User DMILLER subdirectory is [.MAIL]     User DMILLER has 3 new messages     User DMILLER has not set a forwarding address     User DMILLER personal name is "David Miller"     User DMILLER editor is EDT     User DMILLER has cc prompting disabled     User DMILLER has automatic copies to self disabled     User DMILLER has automatic deleted message purge enabled     User DMILLER default print queue is SYS$PRINT     User DMILLER has not set a default print form 

The manager may also use this utility to create a mail alias with a forwarding address. For instance, it is customary to have a POSTMASTER mail account. This can be done without creating a special account. Instead, create an entry in the mail profile for POSTMASTER and have it forward all mail to SYSTEM:

     MAILUAF> ADD POSTMASTER /FORWARD=SYSTEM     MAILUAF> show postmaster     User POSTMASTER forwarding address is SYSTEM     User POSTMASTER has automatic deleted message purge enabled