Jason's Home Page - Linux HOWTOs

mailx - Basic commandline MUA (mail user agent) ChangeLog

Web site:	http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/mailx.html
Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_Project

HOWTO

# mailx 12.4
# ==========
# nail became Heirloom mailx
# mailx development stopped
# S-nail development started
# S-nail may next be renamed S-mailx

# Slackware 8.0, 8.1: mailx 8.1.1 (BSD mailx)
# Slackware 9.0: nail 10.4
# Slackware 9.1: nail 10.5
# Slackware 10.0: nail 10.7
# Slackware 10.1: nail 11.20
# Slackware 10.2: nail 11.24
# Slackware 11.0, 12.0: mailx 12.1
# Slackware 12.1, 12.2: mailx 12.3
# Slackware 13.0, 13.1, 13.37: mailx 12.4
# Slackware 14.0, 14.1, 14.2: mailx 12.5
# Slackware 15.0: s-nail 14.9.23

# The S-nail Git repository is password protected, see the homepage for username and
# password, or view a mirror of it here:
# https://github.com/sdaoden/s-mailx

# This mailx HOWTO will most likely no longer get any updates

# If you want to try mailx 12.5, try the read-only CVS repository while
# it's still there, or get a tarball from one of these places:
# Slackware 14.2 source (HTTP)
# Slackware 14.2 source (FTP)
# Debian

# ===

# If you ever want to remove mailx, or clean up an old version before
# installing a new one, skip down to the bottom for instructions

# Get it
cd
test -f installed/mailx-12.4.tar.bz2 && mv installed/mailx-12.4.tar.bz2 .
test ! -f mailx-12.4.tar.bz2 &&
wget https://downloads.sf.net/heirloom/mailx-12.4.tar.bz2

# Extract it
mkdir -p -m 0700 ~/src
cd ~/src
find -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "nail-*" -exec rm -r {} \;
tar xjvf ~/mailx-12.4.tar.bz2
cd mailx-12.4
test $UID = 0 && chown -R root:root .

# If you have OpenSSL 1.x.x installed, this patch may be required to get
# it to build:
wget -nc http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/blfs/7.5/\
mailx-12.4-openssl_1.0.0_build_fix-1.patch
patch -p1 < mailx-12.4-openssl_1.0.0_build_fix-1.patch

## Compile it
# If your OpenSSL is from a Slackware package, or if you installed
# it under the /usr prefix instead of the usual source-installed
# /usr/local/ssl prefix, the CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS parts below are
# not necessary
make PREFIX=/usr MANDIR=/usr/man MAILSPOOL=/var/spool/mail \
CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/ssl/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/ssl/lib

# Become root to install it
su

# Back up your existing nail.rc file, if you have one
test -f /etc/nail.rc &&
( mkdir -p -m 0700 ~/backup
   cp -a /etc/nail.rc ~/backup/nail.rc-$(date +%Y%m%d) )

# Remove the Slackware package(s), commonly used symlinks
test -x /sbin/removepkg && /sbin/removepkg mailx nail
( cd /bin ; rm -f Mail mail mailx nail )
( cd /usr/bin ; rm -f Mail mail mailx nail )

# Make sure /usr/lib/sendmail (usually a symlink) exists
test ! -L /usr/lib/sendmail &&
( test -x /usr/sbin/sendmail &&
    ln -sf /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/lib/sendmail )

# Install mailx
make install PREFIX=/usr MANDIR=/usr/man MAILSPOOL=/var/spool/mail \
UCBINSTALL=/usr/bin/install

# Create common symlinks
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /bin/Mail
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /bin/mail
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /bin/mailx
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /bin/nail
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /usr/bin/mail
ln -sf /usr/bin/mailx /usr/bin/nail
ln -sf /usr/man/man1/mailx.1 /usr/man/man1/Mail.1
ln -sf /usr/man/man1/mailx.1 /usr/man/man1/mail.1
ln -sf /usr/man/man1/mailx.1 /usr/man/man1/nail.1

# If you upgraded from an older version of nail, you may want to view (and
# merge) the differences between your old /etc/nail.rc and the one that
# comes with nail:
# diff -u /etc/nail.rc nail.rc | less
#
# and if you didn't customize your /etc/nail.rc, you might as well just copy
# the sample over your old one:
# diff -q /etc/nail.rc nail.rc || cp nail.rc /etc/

# Become yourself again
exit

cd
mkdir -p -m 0700 installed
rm -f installed/nail-*.tar.* installed/mailx-*.tar.*
mv mailx-12.4.tar.bz2 installed/

# If you ever want to uninstall mailx, though I can't imagine why
# you'd want to, this should do it:
su
rm -f /etc/nail.rc /usr/local/etc/nail.rc
for bindir in /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin;
do
  ( cd $bindir
    rm -f mailx nail
    test -L Mail && rm -f Mail
    test -L mail && rm -f mail )
done
for mandir in /usr/man/man1 /usr/share/man/man1;
do
  ( cd $mandir
    rm -f mailx.1 nail.1
    test -L Mail.1 && rm Mail.1 )
    test -L mail.1 && rm mail.1 )
done
exit
find ~/src -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "mailx-*" -exec rm -r {} \;
find ~/src -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "nail-*" -exec rm -r {} \;
rm -f ~/installed/mailx-*.tar.* ~/installed/nail-*.tar.*