the mail trail...sendmail

[rado]

hi Y'all,
Oh, I am guilty of running programs that I don't know exactly what
they/their job is in the total process.
I'm talking about the mail system I have set up.
I just have a basic sendmail/procmail/evolution pop setup.
I want to know exactly what sendmail's job is. The man sendmail page
says it's job is to sendmail, as the name implies. Please tell me if my
thinking is warped. I think sendmail sends the mail in both directions.
you write a msg, it goes to sendmail and it gets sent on the way. 
a msg comes in sendmail is listening on, think it's port 25. sendmail
grabs it and.....

Here is where I am hung up. What actually takes place now? 
In just a basic, Sendmail system w/out many changes at all that came
stock w/FC3, can I assume that: Say a msg comes in for rado, does it go
to var/spool/mail/rado?  
when exactly does procmail get in the game?
I notice that in /home/rado there is lots of stuff concering mail.

~/Mail, ~/mail, ~/.evolution.
I really don't want to get too, too, tech here, just a little
understanding of where the mail trail goes and how to follow it.

thx
john rose
-- 
1 good thing about Alzheimers...least you can hide your own easter eggs.