On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, Philip Hazel wrote:
> It is certainly beginning to look as though the sendmail documentation
> has been very wrong, possibly for years. I have been sent the following
> extract from the 8.8.8 manpage
>
> -t Read message for recipients. To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will
> be scanned for recipient addresses. The Bcc: line will be
> deleted before transmission. Any addresses in the argument
> list will be suppressed, that is, they will not receive
> copies even if listed in the message header.
>
> That's pretty unambiguous, isn't it? However, a test on 8.8.8 apparently
> also shows it to be false. What is going on here?
Agreed. That is unambiguous. So as you say, either the sendmail docs
are wrong or most implementations are wrong.
> Changing Exim to behave like that is trivial. The work consists of
> deleting about 10 lines of code. The only question is should the change
> be made, and if so, should it be unconditional or should there be an
> option, and if so, what should the default state be? Given the weird
> state of sendmail, I guess it should certainly be an option.
My opinion is that it should be an option, and the default should
consider the sendmail documentation correct. If smail already does
so, there is already a base out there that does follow the documentation.
I don't think that there is anything out there that deliberately relies on
the current practice of most sendmails. (The dnews people have already
posted saying that their call to "/usr/lib/sendmail -t %s" is a mistake
and are using "/usr/lib/sendmail %s" in their current and future
releases.)
It's a tough call, but here I think that it makes sense to do as
they say instead of do as they do.
It might also be worth getting in touch with the sendmail people.
-j
--
Jeffrey Goldberg +44 (0)1234 750 111 x 2826
Cranfield Computer Centre FAX 751 814
J.Goldberg@??? http://WWW.Cranfield.ac.uk/public/cc/cc047/
Relativism is the triumph of authority over truth, convention over justice.
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