Compatibility

I've designed Fernmail to be compatible with uupc 2.1 and uupc 3.0, and so far I've not run across any incompatibilities.

I've also been able to use Fernmail with Mac/gnuucp 4.3 and Mac/gnuucp 4.6. Fernmail writes the B., C., and D. uucp files directly into the Spool folder... unlike the MailReader stack, which writes temporary files that are subsequently processed by the Mac/gnuucp engine and used to build the real uucp command and data files.

Fernmail is also compatible with UUMac.  In UUMac mode, most of Fernmail's mail-routing and mail-delivery functions are bypassed.  Only file copies (i.e. to "mail.sent") of mail, and netnews articles are delivered by Fernmail.  All other mail routing and delivery is delegated to the UUMac engine.

Unfortunate interactions 'tween Fernmail and uucp

You should not run uupc 2.1 or Mac/gnuucp to send and receive mail at a time when Fernmail has your incoming mailbox open in a window.  This could result in a loss of one or more incoming messages… your uucp mail delivery program will probably bounce the messages when it finds that your mailbox is busy and hence inaccessible.

This problem is fixed in uupc 3.0.  If your mailbox is busy when uupc 3.0 tries to deliver mail, the delivery attempt is deferred and will be retried the next time that the uucp queue is executed.

Differences between Fernmail and pcmail

Fernmail's basic configuration is similar to that of pcmail 2.1, with the following notes:

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Fernmail uses the HOMEWORLD resource to point to a directory that contains a set of home directories, indexed by the user name. For example, if HOMEWORLD points to /usr/home, and your USERNAME is barney, then your own home directory lies in /usr/home/barney, and it's in this directory that you can place your signature file, and into which your mbox and mail.sent files will be written.

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Fernmail places the mail.sent file in the user's home directory, rather than in the uucp directory hierarchy. Messages are always written to the mail.sent file.

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When you close your inbound mailbox, Fernmail will automatically move every message that you've read, and haven't flagged for deletion, into the mbox file in your home directory.

uucp limitations

I've found that the uupc 2.1 mail-delivery subroutines aren't "domain-aware".  If your Mac is registered with a full DNS domain-name, and if one of your neighboring sites delivers mail to you with your domain name in the address, then the standard uupc 2.1 software will not realize that the domain-name in question is your domain name, and it will bounce the message back to your primary MAILSERVICE neighbor for deliver.  Your neighbor will bounce it back to you (directly or indirectly), and a nasty delivery-loop will occur.

This problem has nothing to do with Fernmail itself… it's entirely a limitation of the uupc 2.1 software.  There are two solutions:

•  Persuade your uucp neighbor(s) to strip your domain name off of any inbound mail that they deliver to you.  If your neighbor is an Internet host running sendmail, and if they're performing MX service for you, then they can probably do this as part of the "ruleset 0" statement which controls delivery to your site.

•  Run uupc 3.0, which fixes this problem.  uupc 3.0 is being made available via the usual channels (comp.binaries.mac, Info-Mac, uploads to various bulletin-boards) in mid-February 1992.  If you can't find a copy at an archive site in your area, send me email and I'll arrange to send you the current version.