lynx-dev Re: off topic: metamail

[Michael Warner]

On or about 15 Feb, 2000, Mike Karlesky
<address@hidden> wrote:

> I am terribly sorry to bother you real lynx developers, but I
> have a somewhat involved user issue with lynx that I just can't
> seem to resolve.  I was hoping someone could spare a moment...

You're in the right place -- this is a combined user/developer
list.  I don't write any code either.

        [...]

> When 'nobody' executes my scripts on this machine and I trap
> the std_err messages, I get the following:
> "metamail: Can't open temporary file!"

It seems some linux distributions set the default temp file
location to "~/tmp".  When this directory doesn't exist, lynx
dies.  This can be remedied by setting an environmental variable
"LYNX_TEMP_SPACE" and pointing it to "/tmp" or other location of
your choice (as long as it exists and has suitable permissions).

As I recall (but not too reliably) the "metamail" reference is
basically an historical artifact, and metamail isn't actually
involved.

        [...]

> The machine I have to run the scripts on runs linux (Red Hat release 6.0
> Kernel 2.2.5-22) and is running lynx 2.8.1rel.2 (1998).

Reference:
< http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/html/month012000/msg00135.html >

-- 
Michael Warner
<address@hidden>