Automated emails

[Matt Graham]

After a long battle with technology, Bryan O'Neal wrote:
> I have come to the point I would like to set up something to watch
> incoming emails[,] pick out key words[,] and forward them on to known 
> parties and to email addresses taken from the incoming email.

Keywords where?  In the Subject:, or in the message body?  Where would the 
mail addresses you want to harvest come from in the message?  I *think* this 
could be done with procmail.  If it can't be done with procmail, then 
procmail could invoke a Perl script (possibly using Mail::Sendmail to send 
arbitrary messages to arbitrary recipients) and then all text processing 
becomes Very Simple :-) .

> Basically we want to start doing tailed auto responses to email generated 
> via web forms or certain public emails such as 
> StopAThife at Cornerstonehome.com. 

A thife?  ("At's not a thife.  *THIS* is a thife.")  Anyway, the precise 
solution you'll use depends on many details.  I know there are Perl modules 
on CPAN (and available in every distro) that will allow you to check 
arbitrary POP3 mailboxes (Mail::POP3Client), extract whichever headers you 
want, and send mail to arbitrary recipients (Mail::Sendmail).  This would be 
decent if you're partially comfortable with Perl or know somebody who is.  If 
not, there may be alternatives.

> Any suggestions on where to get started with this?  I have a blank slate
> to work from as long as it can be hosted on a Red Hat derivative, or XP
> Pro ;)

See above.  Note that the basics are similar on both (just install ActiveState 
Perl on 'Doze first).  HTH,

-- 
  207.  The following are not legal weapons in a duel:  Steamrollers,
  Nerve Gas, Land Mines, Midgets.
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see