haliosm@cyprus.INGR.COM (Michael Halios) (09/21/90)
When a user sends mail, two data files are created - one containing the text of the mail message, the other containing the instructions for execution of rmail on the remote system. When a user sends a copy of his original message, four data files are created. The text of the mail message is send to the central communication point two times. NOT necessary to send the text file two times. Think of a mail message of 30 pages mailed to one site with a long cc list of peoble on the same site. Can't rmail take care the long cc list with one execution ? If the uucp connection is a dial up Modem, Money and time can be saved. The must be a way to make this more efficient. I appreciate any comments or ideas.
lenoirjw@infonode.ingr.com (Billy Lenoir) (09/22/90)
In article <1288@cyprus.INGR.COM> haliosm@cyprus.INGR.COM (Michael Halios) writes: [Some discussion deleted] > Think of a mail message of 30 pages mailed to one site with a long cc > list of peoble on the same site. Can't rmail take care the long cc list > with one execution ? > > If the uucp connection is a dial up Modem, Money and time can be saved. > The must be a way to make this more efficient. > > I appreciate any comments or ideas. Aliases or forwarding (i.e. mailing lists) can help resolve this problem. If the document or group of documents are sent to the same people often, you can send this list to a dummy address that's only function is to forward mail. example: many people get a copy of a very large TR/CR report on a regular basis. If this was mailed to an account on cyprus called trcr, and the mail file /usr/mail/trcr contained the following info it would route the message correctly: Forward to haliosm me you is3005!someone The system cyprus would forward the one mail message sent to cyprus to users haliosm, me, you, is3005!someone. Sendmail would handle this even better. You just add an entry to the /usr/lib/aliases file for trcr, and you don't even need the account. Sendmail takes care of forwarding the mail. IMHO, many of the large mailings that are done currently should consider using this method of routing mail to remote sites. It allows the remote sites some control over who sees the report, without contacting the originator and it cuts down on the mail volume over dialup links. Isn't this the method used by the WISE system? -- One Day my .sig Billy Lenoir will come in. b10!lenoir!lenoirjw (INGR) lenoirjw@ingr.com (INTERNET) ...uunet!ingr!b10!lenoir!lenoirjw (UUCP) -- One Day my .sig Billy Lenoir will come in. b10!lenoir!lenoirjw (INGR) lenoirjw@ingr.com (INTERNET) ...uunet!ingr!b10!lenoir!lenoirjw (UUCP)
steve@thelake.mn.org (Steve Yelvington) (09/22/90)
[In article <1288@cyprus.INGR.COM>,
haliosm@cyprus.INGR.COM (Michael Halios) writes ... ]
> When a user sends mail, two data files are created - one containing the
> text of the mail message, the other containing the instructions for
> execution of rmail on the remote system.
>
> When a user sends a copy of his original message, four data files are
> created.
>
> The text of the mail message is send to the central communication point
> two times. NOT necessary to send the text file two times.
Right.
On my system -- Atari ST, Smail 2.5 ported from *nix, locally developed
user interface -- a single message sent to multiple recipients through
a single host will travel as two data files. The X file will contain
multiple arguments to rmail on the remote host.
I have no direct experience with Smail on a Unix system, but I presume
that it would invoke uux host!rnews in a similar fashion:
(1) The user agent invokes /bin/mail, feeding it a mail message
on standard input and passing the destination address(es) as
argument(s).
(2) /bin/mail determines that the address(es) is (are) non-local,
and invokes uux with host!rmail as an argument, followed by
one or more addresses (in bang-path format).
(3) /bin/uux creates two data files. The D file contains the message,
the X file contains instructions to be executed on the remote
host. If there are multiple recipients, rmail on the remote host
will be passed multiple arguments. Also, uux creates a local
command file (C file) to instruct uucico to copy the X and D
files to the remote host.
If your user agent (was it elm?) insists on invoking /bin/mail
nine times for nine recipients, then yes, there are going to be
nine D files, nine X files and nine C files, regardless of whether
/bin/mail could have handled it more efficiently.
--
Steve Yelvington up at the lake in Minnesota
(moving soon to Marine on St. Croix)
steve@thelake.mn.org plains!umn-cs!thelake!stevepeter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (09/22/90)
> > Think of a mail message of 30 pages mailed to one site with a long cc > > list of peoble on the same site. Can't rmail take care the long cc list > > with one execution ? SMAIL 2 (the real smail, as opposed to SMAIL 3 which is really GNU sendmail) does this. I don't know if SMAIL 3 does it as well, but I wouldn't be surprised. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' +1 713 274 5180. 'U` peter@ferranti.com
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (09/23/90)
In article <R.+5I6D@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >> > Think of a mail message of 30 pages mailed to one site with a long cc >> > list of peoble on the same site. Can't rmail take care the long cc list >> > with one execution ? > >SMAIL 2 (the real smail, as opposed to SMAIL 3 which is really GNU sendmail) >does this. I don't know if SMAIL 3 does it as well, but I wouldn't be >surprised. This discussion has been going on for several days, but I have seen no comment yet about why this happens in 'sendmail' systems. It is time to add one: In a sendmail based system, this behavior is controlled by the 'm' flag in the mailer definition. Look for the mailer definition in a line beginning 'M' in 'sendmail.cf'. There is a string of flags F=xxxx. If 'm' is one of the flags, 'sendmail' will transmit to multiple recipients in one operation. If 'm' is absent, it will not. If you look at your mailer definitions, you will probably see that most already have the 'm' flag. Normally the UUCP mailer does not. This is because some versions of 'rmail' cannot handle multiple recipients. Check with all your UUCP neighbors. See if they can handle multiple recipients. To be safe run some tests. If all UUCP neighbors can handle it, just add the 'm' flag. But remember to check the next time a UUCP neighbor is added. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115. +1-815-753-6940
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (09/24/90)
In article <R.+5I6D@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >> > Think of a mail message of 30 pages mailed to one site with a long cc >> > list of peoble on the same site. Can't rmail take care the long cc list >> > with one execution ? > >SMAIL 2 (the real smail, as opposed to SMAIL 3 which is really GNU sendmail) >does this. I don't know if SMAIL 3 does it as well, but I wouldn't be >surprised. Smail 3 lets you configure the maximum number of addresses to be expanded per invocation of the underlying command. The default configuration has the uux to remote rmail set for a maximum of 5 addresses. This should work with everything except 4.1 BSD and some SCO Xenix versions. There is also a setup to generate bsmtp where any number of recpients can be specified in the smtp header of a single message, and an optional mode to batch the bsmtp messages to a host, compressing if desired. The bsmtp modes obviously require smail 3 on the remote side also, and batching messages doesn't help unless you are willing to delay transmission to allow several to accumulate for the same host. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us
lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) (09/27/90)
peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >SMAIL 2 (the real smail, as opposed to SMAIL 3 which is really GNU sendmail) No, it's not. >does this. I don't know if SMAIL 3 does it as well, but I wouldn't be >surprised. It's configurable on a per-transport basis. Most versions of post-seventh edition /bin/mail will recognize multiple copies going to the same site and only send one copy of the actual message contents. It sounds to me like the original posters copy of elm might not be configured correctly. Decisions about how many copies of a message to send, where to send them, and how to send them, isn't really any of elm's business. All of this should be left to the underlying MTA. -- Lyndon Nerenberg VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University {alberta,cbmvax,mips}!atha!lyndon || lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca The only thing open about OSF is their mouth. --Chuck Musciano