Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 14:55:57 +0200 From: Gerhard Sittig <Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net> To: security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sendmail default run state Message-ID: <20000923145557.G5065@speedy.gsinet> In-Reply-To: <200009222118.e8MLId117503@orthanc.ab.ca>; from lyndon@orthanc.ab.ca on Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 03:18:39PM -0600 References: <20000922222026.A33410@mithrandr.moria.org> <200009222118.e8MLId117503@orthanc.ab.ca>
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On Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 15:18 -0600, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> >>>>> "Neil" == Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org> writes:
>
> [ ... talking to SMTP servers ... ]
>
> Neil> The only one I can think of is fetchmail. What other ones
> Neil> behave like this? It is a good point, though.
>
> MH, exmh (I think), pine, mulberry, netscape (may default to
> "mail" rather than "localhost").
>
> You wouldn't run fetchmail in a configuration like I described.
Are you sure of the above facts? IIRC _any_ UNIX MUA will use
the sendmail command line interface (/usr/sbin/sendmail) for
outgoing mail. Only MTAs talk SMTP. This means that you just
have to _install_ sendmail (or some lookalike) for the machine to
be able to *send* mail. You have to _run_ sendmail (or some
lookalike) to be able to _receive_ mail from the network. That's
why almost no machine in a network needs sendmail_enable set to
YES. And for the ones to need it (mail relays and local servers)
you're better aware of this fact when installing the OS.
To talk about those clients:
pine reads from a local (or network fs mounted) mailbox and
delivers to the sendmail command via stdin. I would expect MH
and exmh to do the same. The same holds for mail(1) and elm.
And mutt. And any traditional UNIX mail user agent.
fetchmail delivers by default to a SMTP server. But it could be
run as well in MDA mode -- although I never used it this way.
And nobody said the SMTP machine fetchmail delivers to had to be
a user's workstation. This wouldn't be a good idea at all.
Usually you fetch from an external machine (e.g. your ISP) and
shove the mail to your LAN's mail server.
Netscape is an exception here. It does have some MUA
functionality, but it tries to be a MTA, too. It's not a
"normal" program in this respect. It doesn't focus on one aspect
to make this one right. It's the bloat usually found in other
areas. I wouldn't confuse this clumsy thing with an easy to use
and capable mail frontend. :) I even dare to say its wide spread
use comes mostly from all the (former?) Windows users who want
some clickable frontend not yet realizing that specialized
programs are way more capable since they only have this one goal
in mind.
virtually yours 82D1 9B9C 01DC 4FB4 D7B4 61BE 3F49 4F77 72DE DA76
Gerhard Sittig true | mail -s "get gpg key" Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net
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