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I've got cron jobs sending mail to my user at /var/mail. I know how to access that at the command line with the mail command. But, while a big command line fan, I do not like reading mail (even system mail) that way.

My mail client of choice is Thunderbird. Can I read /var/mail messages in Thunderbird? How?

I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 and Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 (though I'm soon to upgraded to 10.04).

RokeJulianLockhart
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vanden
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2 Answers2

16

Update: this is no longer possible since around Thunderbird version 91. See answer by RokeJulianLockhart below.

In Ubuntu 10.04, with Thunderbird 3, the option is accomplished by:

  1. Select Edit,   Account Settings

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  1. Choose Account Actions,   Add other account

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  1. Select Unix Spool (Movemail).

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The UI to access this menu is slightly different in Thunderbird 2, but I didn't have it handy.

In Thunderbird 2, do the following, adapted from the Gmail FAQ:

  1. Click the Tools menu, and select Account Settings..
  2. Click the Add Account... button to launch Account Wizard.
  3. Select Movemail from the list.
BeastOfCaerbannog
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lfaraone
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3

This hasn't been possible since ⪆ V91. However, it should become possible if bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1802145 is resolved.

If you require this functionality, you can download the previous version at ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/90.0b3. However, on cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:42, it returns:

XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/RokeJulianLockhart/Downloads/thunderbird/libxul.so:
libdbus-glib-1.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.
RokeJulianLockhart
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