I want to process a particular mailbox when it receives mail, I know I could have cron check every n minutes for any mail, but wondering if there's a way to "listen" for mail rather than continually polling.
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Try a .forward file
You can pipe the message into any program or script you want, but also check if procmail can do what you want.
finnw
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If you're using postfix I'd suggest aliasing the mailbox you're interested in to a process that will do the work for you. Then there's no polling. The message comes in and goes directly to being processed.
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Restore the Data Dumps
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Depending on your mail server, it may be possible to actually have any incoming message be delivered to a process. Either in a .forward or by setting up something more advanced. In exim you can setup a transport to run a command, for certain addresses.
Zoredache
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As Jason and Zoredache have already mentioned, you might be able to do this in the MTA itself. Another possibility is to have inotify watch the mailbox file or maildir.
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Paul Tomblin
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if you dont have a mail-server on your own (root-access) - you could use a web service for that: http://cloudmailin.net (200mails/month for free) - works like charme and helped me out.
Daniel Schönherr
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