Eva Myers wrote: > Is a program or GNOME applet with similar functionality to xbiff > available for SL4? Searching the list archives confirmed that xbiff > itself is no longer available, but didn't say what people tend to use > instead. I and many of my users find it very useful to be beeped when > new email arrives. > Eva. > > In SL4.4 there is a 'mailcheck' tool built-in to Gnome as part of the 'gnome-applets' package. Using SL4.4 rpms and built-in tools may be preferred to using a dated xbiff tarball that will not be updated automatically. There are risks and vulnerabilities associated with many of these mail notification utils due to various network email protocols plus, the sensitive account information required to configure & check in with mail servers. If I were to use a 3rd-party mail notification tool, I would try to find an RPM package and configure yum, apt or smart to get the updates from a reputable RPM repository. $ locate mailcheck | less ... /etc/sound/events/mailcheck.soundlist /usr/share/gnome/help/mailcheck /usr/libexec/mailcheck-applet $ rpm -q -f /etc/sound/events/mailcheck.soundlist gnome-applets-2.8.0-5 $ rpm -qiv gnome-applets http://dag.wieers.com/packages/gnome-applets/gnome-applets.spec Evolution and Kmail also have built-in mail notification widgets... $ locate notif | grep -i mail ... There are many "New Mail Notification" tools, some launch via the panel at startup, others are application specific & require the mail program or a plugin to be running in the background. Most are listed here... MailNotification - Linux Links http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Internet/Mail/Notification/ Mail Notification - appears to be the current Gnome/Kde/Xfce FreeDesktop.org tool of choice and is located in the 'extras' repository (not sure where that lives on SL?)... http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/ http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/3430795/com/mail-notification-3.0-7.fc6.i386.rpm.html http://linux.web.cern.ch/linux/scientific4/docs/softwaremgmt.shtml http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/UsingExtras gnubiff - (replaces gbiff/gbiff2) GUI gnome panel mail notification utility - RPMs@RPMForge http://gnubiff.sourceforge.net/ http://dag.wieers.com/packages/gnubiff/ http://dries.ulyssis.org/apt/packages/gnubiff/info.html http://rpmforge.net/user/packages/gnubiff/ Kbiff - KDE Mail Notification Utility http://www.granroth.org/kbiff/ netbiff - mail notification utility http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jrk3g/netbiff/ Mozilla New Mail Icon - moztraybiff - Extension for Mozilla Thunderbird & Seamonkey http://moztraybiff.mozdev.org/ GKrellM Plugins - Mailwatch http://gkrellm.luon.net/mailwatch.phtml There are many variants of biff or xbiff (named after dogs that fetch mail) and just as many rewrites, which one is in favor is likely dependent on how it handles security bugs and how active the development is. For example 'elm' <http://www.instinct.org/elm/> was once my preferred console email client and came with an easy to use utility called 'newmail' <http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man1/newmail.1.html>. Elm is no longer in active development and the TUV no longer distributes it, so I am still learning mutt <http://www.mutt.org>. Newmail is available as a standalone tool and appears actively developed, though I haven't found an rpm... newmail - mail notification utility with audible beeps http://www.infodrom.org/projects/newmail/ Some interesting 'mail notification' hacks.... CheckingMailRemotely - MuttWiki UserStory http://wiki.mutt.org/?action=browse&diff=1&id=UserStory/CheckingMailRemotely UNIX mail notification in the dock - macosxhints.com http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020221085718945 -- Art Wildman - NWS JAX FL. - http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jax "If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will..." - Grateful Dead
