January 2008: It is posible from now to directly hand files to user or group disk spaces

E-mails exist and can be sent to addresses of the following types:

name_user@disco.uv.es
name_group@disco.uv.es

Messages directed to these addresses will be handed in the corresponding space disk in a folder (created if necessary) with the name “disk mailbox”.

A subfolder will be created for each new received message, with the sender’s (i.e. “buddy@gemail_com_1)
Within the folder there will be diverse files corresponding to each of the parts (adjuncts) contained in the message along with a headers.txt file with the headers.

I.e. for the common case of a message with an adjunct:

buddy@gmail_com_1157404923 [folder]
Headers.txt [headers]
Message.txt [message’s text]
Blueplanet [adjunct]

A direct application of this is that the user is able to save within the virtual disk an adjunct or a package received via email without having to download it first at the computer and then uploading it to disc.uv.es (impossible if there is a slow line).
It also allows the handing of files up to 50MB (maximum limit for an email) within a user’s disk without going to the delivery service and without having to open the email account.

The space disk’s quote will obviously be applied, and messages that go over it will be rejected.

Antivirus Software

The files are checked using an antivirus software and are rejected if they are infected. It can happen that the sender does not receive the error message and, hence, the infected file is directly erased and in disc.uv.es it is left in a file “found_virus.txt” that warns about what happened.

Conditions for the handing (Anti-spam)

A necessary condition for the handing of a message to take place is that it obeys two conditions:

1. The sender (From:) follows an address within the “uv.es” domain
2. The subject contains the word “adjunct” or “attach” (also works with the words in plural)

i.e.: Subject: Requested documents attached

This allows university users to directly redirect messages to diskmailbox@disc.uv.es as long as the sender has included “adjunct” or similar in the subject so it can be accepted. This is a (light) anti-spam measure.

Note

Observe the server is designed for simple messages (few adjuncts, no adjuncts within adjuncts). It is possible for some types of messages not to be properly decoded by the disk mailbox.