[ On Tuesday, November 23, 2004 at 09:54:59 (+0000), Philip Hazel wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [exim] about Sender: and envelope reverse-path in today's systems
>
> Interestingly, a recent addition to Exim allows it to do the first of
> those, but exactly the opposite for the second! With mua_wrapper=true,
> you get the following:
Hmmm.... sounds like a replacement for "mini_sendmail":
http://www.acme.com/software/mini_sendmail/
> I suppose there could be a variant on this that insists on a local
> transport instead of a remote one. If people really, really want it...
I think that would be useful, if only to make it easier to use Exim to
replace sendmail on systems that do by default have lots of programs
which like to send local mail to local users.
If someone really wants to use e-mail in the same way it was used on
Unix systems in the pre-internet days then I suppose they should be able
to use "@localhost" and to use a fancy modern MTA that's been configured
to work in a "local-only" mode. In fact such a setup could even run an
SMTP listener on 127.0.0.1 just so that modern SMTP-only MUAs could also
be used to send local mail too. :-)
To me though it only makes sense to use local e-mail on a system that's
truly used by multiple human users who would want to communicate between
each other within the confines of that system; or which is a server that
normally runs 24x7 (and if it has any network access then it has
permanent network access even if only to a pivate interanet LAN).
Normal users (i.e. users who aren't system managers and who don't ever
play being sysadmins, even in their fantasy lives) are not going to pay
attention to system reports from their workstations and laptops even if
those messages are routed to their ISP e-mail account. System designers
need to learn to make systems self managing and need to use the user
interface(s) to put important messages in the face of (or the ear of)
the user, not expect the user to find those messages lying around in an
e-mail message in some folder nobody knows or cares about (or even
hidden away in some log file). I.e. workstation designers would do well
to learn a thing or two from Apple. They've been making workstations
work well without using any local system e-mail for over twenty years
now. The log files should be there so the "IT guy" can diagnose
problems without having to reproduce them, but those log files should be
automatically managed.
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP RoboHack <woods@???>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???> Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
