Using Palm for email in linux & GPG

[J.L.Francois]

It seems like on Sat, Apr 29, 2000 at 08:31:43PM -0700, Wes Bateman scribbled:
Orig Msg> Jean:
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> There's a mail plug-in for jpilot that I've been using.  Command-line
Orig Msg> sounds cooler though.  Is it a mail conduit prog you're using, or just
Orig Msg> some kind of transfer utility?  Do you sync up mail or run a separate mail
Orig Msg> account for your Palm?  Curious to hear more :)
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> Wes
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> On Sat, 29 Apr 2000 frenchie@magusnet.gilbert.az.us wrote:
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> > I think we may need to do
Orig Msg> > an advanced PDA with linux
Orig Msg> > for a future meeting.
Orig Msg> > Now that I finally got mail
Orig Msg> > from my Pilot working from
Orig Msg> > the command line, it rocks.
Orig Msg> > Check the header.
Orig Msg> > POP works but takes too  long.
Orig Msg> > All i have to fogure out now is how to GPG sign my emails in the palm.
Orig Msg> > 
Orig Msg> > 
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> -- 
Orig Msg> Wes Bateman
Orig Msg> 
Orig Msg> "-Warning- You are logged into reality as root..."
Orig Msg> 

Ok. Here is some background.

While traveling with EBIZ I wanted to have a laptop to
backup my Pilot and to use for dialup.

I got a Toshiba Sattelite 100CS, which is a Pentium 75
with 16MB RAM and a 500MB hard drive.
I installed Debian Slink, Netscape, GNOME, Elightenment, SSH,
wvdial, gcc, sendmail, apache, and various Pilot tools.

So it works like this:
I set up some environment variables for /dev/pilot and
some mail options.
Then I select "Mail" on the pilot, compose my message and select
"Send".
The next time I do a hotsync to my laptop it sends the message
to Sendmail.
Sendmail queues the message until I connect my laptop to my
LAN via ethernet or dialup and relays it to my mail server
"the smart relay host" which then sends it out.

To retrieve mail I use POP with the Pilot linux tools 
from my laptop which will sync my mail directly to the Pilot.

Here are the pilot tools on my system from "dpkg --get-selections":
pilot-link                                      install
pilot-link-perl                                 install
pilot-manager                                   install
palm-doctoolkit                                 install
palmpython                                      install

Here are some man pages:

dlpsh (1)            - command shell for executing DLP commands to a USR Pilot
install-datebook (1) - installs a new datebook entries in a USR Pilot
install-memo (1)     - installs a new memo in a USR Pilot
install-user (1)     - reads or installs a User Name in a USR Pilot
pilot-xfer (1)       - backup and restore databases to and from a USR Pilot
read-ical (1)        - coverts information on USR Pilot into Ical calendar

Here is the stuff specific to mail:

usage: pilot-mail [options]

      <-p port> Serial port [PILOTPORT]
                   (defaults to '')
      <-h host> POP3 host (if empty, mail won't be received) [POPHOST]
                   (defaults to '')
      <-u user> POP3 user name [POPUSER]
                   (defaults to '')
      <-P pass> POP3 password [POPPASS]
                   (default value set)
      <-f address> Outgoing 'From:' line [PILOTFROM]
                   (defaults to '')
      <-s command> Sendmail command (if empty, mail won't be sent) [SENDMAIL]
                   (defaults to '/usr/lib/sendmail -t -i')
      <-k keep|delete> Keep mail on POP server [POPKEEP]
                   (defaults to 'keep')
      <-d keep|delete|file> Disposition of sent mail [PILOTDISPOSE]
                   (defaults to 'keep')
      <-m mhdir> MH directory to download to Pilot [TOPILOT_MHDIR]
                   (defaults to '')

After an email from Jiva I also figured out how to 
install my GPG key into my Pilot,
beam it or receive a beamed GPG key, 
and install it onto a keyring
using a simple shell or Perl script combined
with the Linux Pilot tools.
It is very quick and very easy.

I will manually demo the procedure at the next meeting.

JLF Sends....
Being a Unix system administrator is like being a tech in a biological warfare
laboratory, except that none of the substances are labeled consistently, any
of the compounds are just as likely to kill you by themselves as they are when
mixed with one another, and it is never clear what distinction is made between
a catastrophic failure in the lab and a successful test in the field.
                                                                (--M. Tiemann)