Hi Michael,

Then I have no further ideas. Pmail is proper working in connection with Mercury. No any problems occured in past.

Maybe some specials to be observed when the user mailboxes are "outsourced" from Pmail folder to Mercury\Mail folder?

What other simple things I could check by editing the pegasus.ini (without changing the running system)?

Brgds

Joerg

Hi,

We have a multi-user environment where Pmail is only installed at the server (Windows 2003 R2). Every user starts its own link to one and only winpm-32.exe. Further we are using different system address books (*.pmr) which are located in the Pmail\Programs folder.

The program folder is restricted for ordinary users. They have "read only" but no write permissions. But the permissions of the single *.pmr files have been changed (write permissions), so that the users are able to change the address books.

No we experience some problems. Some of our users are able to change/write the address books and some of them not. But all users are in the same Active Directory Group with the same rights on the  Pmail Folder and the pmr files.

Only when I set write permissions to the entire folder "Programs", all users are able to change the address books. But then also the other system files within the Pmail\Programs folder are not protected from overwriting.

By the way, I have hidden the entire Pmail folder at the server by renaming the share to Pmail$, but this is not really safe.

I would prefer to move the pmr files to another place, where I set the permissions accordingly without affects to other files.

Brgds

Joerg

> I would prefer to move the pmr files to another place, where I set the permissions accordingly without affects to other files.

Move the PMR and PM! Files of the system book(s) to a read/write directory where all have access and then set the PMR environment variable for all users to this directory.

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]  Move the PMR and PM! Files of the system book(s) to a read/write directory where all have access and then set the PMR environment variable for all users to this directory.  [/quote]

Hi Thomas,

Always on duty - great.

May be you could tell me where I have to set the pmr environment variable.

[quote user="Joerg"]May be you could tell me where I have to set the pmr environment variable.[/quote]

On your desktop right-click the Computer icon, select Properties => Advanced system properties => Environment variables (on Windows 7), IIRC on Windows XP it looks a bit different but you can still access it by right-clicking the Computer icon.

If you put a file called pegasus.ini in your x:\PMAIL\Programs folder on the server then it can contain the settings for the pmr (system address book location) and pml (system distribution lists location) variables. Anyone who runs Pegasus from that x:\PMAIL\Programs folder will use the settings in pegasus.ini - this saves working out how to set the right environment variables on various versions of client Windows in multiple places.

I put my system address books and distribution lists in a separate folder under PMAIL - e.g. x:\PMAIL\email_addr - then pegasus.ini contains:

pmr= ..\email_addr
pml = ..\email_addr

Using the ".." parent folder syntax means the folder reference starts from the Programs folder and works regardless of what drive letter the user uses to map to the file share containing PMAIL.

Then I can make "Programs" read-only and put whatever permissions are needed on "email_addr" and the files in it.

[quote user="pdavis"]  I put my system address books and distribution lists in a separate folder under PMAIL - e.g. x:\PMAIL\email_addr - then pegasus.ini contains:

pmr= ..\email_addr
pml = ..\email_addr

[/quote]

Hi pdavis,

I have created a new subfolder at \Pmail with the name address_books. Then I have moved all pmr and pm! files from \Pmail\Programs to \Pmail\address_books. Further I have updated the pegasus.ini with the entry: pmr= ..\address_books.

But unfortunately all of our system address books disappeared. Also when creating the new address_books folder below the "Programs" folder, they remain lost. I have also changed the syntax within the pegasus.ini with empty spaces in front of the "=" or removing the empty space behind the "=". But nothing happens.

Now I have moved the pmr and pm! files back to the Programs folder and the system books re-appear in my Pmail. Where is my mistake?

Hmmm...

I tried my installation with and without spaces before and after the "=" sign. I tried changing the case of the folder name in the ini file. Any combination of these worked. If I actually make the folder name wrong in the ini file then that breaks it, so it is using the ini file.

All I can suggest at this point is:

1) Check that pegasus.ini is in the PMAIL programs folder

2) Check that users really do have read access to all of the pegasus.ini file, the address_books folder and all the address book files in it.

I have each user map a drive letter "M:" to the share - maybe you have to map a drive letter and can't just run using the URL name? Maybe you already use a mapped drive letter.

I would be interested to know what turns out to be the problem.

Phil

Hi Phil,

Now I have checked all things once again, but without success. Also all folder and subfolder have full write permissions for all users to solve the problem - but nothing.

Here my pegasus.ini with all variations tested:

; Pegasus Mail initialization file.

; Angepasst fuer das deutsche Sprachmodul v4.x
;
; Der folgende Eintrag sorgt dafuer, dass Pegasus Mail immer in
; deutscher Sprache startet. Wenn Sie Pegasus Mail in Englisch
; oder anderen Sprachen starten wollen, kommentieren Sie die Zeile
; "Set Language=DE" mit einem Semikolon am Zeilenanfang aus.

[WinPMail 32-bit]
Set Language=DE

[Location of PMR System Address Books]

pmr=..\Pmail\Address

pmr= ..\Pmail\Address\

pmr = ..\Pmail\Address

pmr = "..\Pmail\Address"

pmr = \\server1\Pmail$\Address

pmr = "\\server1\Pmail$\Address"

I have no further idea. But as soon as I move the pmr/pm! files back to Pmail/Programs all address books are back again.

Crazy thing.

The "\Pmail" bit should not be there. The path is a relative one from the current folder.

".." means the parent directory, so from x:\PMAIL\Programs that gets you up to x:\PMAIL already - then adding \Address descends into the Address sub-folder of PMAIL.

Just put:

pmr = ..\Address

(I assume you have now called the folder "Address")

Of course the other assumption here is that when you run Pegasus (winpm-32.exe) the program starts off with the default folder being x:\PMAIL\Programs - that normally happens and shortcuts you make to winpm-32.exe should have x:\PMAIL\Programs as the "Start in:" of the shortcut properties.

Phil

> I have no further idea. But as soon as I move the pmr/pm! files back to Pmail/Programs all address books are back again.

I'm not sure the UNC string is correct.  It's \\server-name\share-name\path and I do not see a share name here.  In addition, I'm not too sure how PMail will handle a hidden directory.

Try putting the address books someplace else where all have read/write access.

Hi Phil, hi Thomas,

Phil, this could be the right hint. When starting Pmail I'm in Pmail\Programs and that means the parent directory of "Programs" is "Pmail". I will try this tomorrow.

Thomas, I'm using Pmail in connection with Mercury for a long time - and always in hidden mode. That means the Mercury and Pmail shares, where the users need access to, are always hidden to avoid that the users are able to see those shared folders at the Windows network environment. And until now all works. But I'm also not understand why the UNC paths do not work.

Anyway, I keep you informed.

Greetings from Germany

Joerg

Hi Phil,

Also the changing of the parent directory to "..\Adress_book" doesn't help. Further I have connected the \\server\Pmail$\Address_book directory as a network drive where only the new drive letter is stated as path to the address_book in the pegasus.ini - no success.

Now I have only one remaining option - removing the hidden tag "$" from the share. But this I will try later, when I'm alone in the office without users.

But another idea: We are using personal address books saved in each user mailbox and simultaneously system address books currently saved in the Pmail\Programs folder. Pmail shows all of them, marked as "personal" or "system".

When I'm now setting a new PMR path at the pegasus.ini to another directory, which address books are affected? I could imagine that Pmail is generally searching for address books only at this new path irrespective of peronal or system address books, isn't it? Or is the new PMR path valid for system books only and simultaneously Pmail is searching the user mailboxes for additional personal books, too?

Thanks so far.

Joerg

> Now I have only one remaining option - removing the hidden tag "$" from

the share. But this I will try later, when I'm alone
> in the office

without users.

There is another option, put the address book directory on a non-hidden share.

> When I'm now setting a new PMR path at the pegasus.ini to another directory, which address books are affected?

System books only.

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"] There is another option, put the address book directory on a non-hidden share.[/quote]

Hi Thomas,

Now I moved the system address books to a complete other drive, where all users have complete access and which is not hidden. Same result. 

Meantime I think the pegasus.ini is not used by Pmail. Maybe this is a bug (or feature) of the Full German Version?

Brgds and nice weekend

Joerg

[quote user="Joerg"]Meantime I think the pegasus.ini is not used by Pmail. Maybe this is a bug (or feature) of the Full German Version?[/quote]

Definitely not, here's a quote from it as installed by the German setup:

; Angepasst fuer das deutsche Sprachmodul v4.x
;
; Der folgende Eintrag sorgt dafuer, dass Pegasus Mail immer in
; deutscher Sprache startet. Wenn Sie Pegasus Mail in Englisch
; oder anderen Sprachen starten wollen, kommentieren Sie die Zeile
; "Set Language=DE" mit einem Semikolon am Zeilenanfang aus.