How to read /var/mail/USER mailbox in Mail.app?

NP7776 wrote:
So I have some cronjobs setup (because I haven't figured out to schedule the same cronjobs in launchd) and they send e-mails to /var/mail/USER when there are errors.

I want to be able to read this in Mail.app but from what I have read, since 10.4 mbox files aren't used by Mail.app anymore. Is there a way to do this? Other than importing the mailbox everytime?

no. you'd have to import it every time. you can change your cron job to use Mail.app instead of CML mail or set up a Mail server (if you know how) and use mail to have cron send mail to a regular email address.

Mail.app is apple scriptable. apple script can be called from CML using osascript command. using apple script you can script composing and sending a message using Mail.app. It's hard to say more without knowing what exactly you are trying to do. can you give more details?

so what exactly is the command that your cron executes? instead of piping it to mail you can use whatever this command produces inside an apple script to send yourself an email using Mail.app instead of CLM mail.

here is a sample apple script.

<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
tell application "Mail"
launch
set myconent to do shell script "date" -- put your own shell command instead of date in here

set NewOne to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:"whatever you want here", content:mycontent, visible:false}
tell NewOne
make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:"johndoe@gmail.com"}
end tell
send NewOne
end tell</pre>

Your folder action method should work fine as well. you can use it instead of cron to run that apple script.