netnews@psc90.UUCP (Dez) (07/01/88)
I have just got Smail to work, and to read Pathalias output like it should.
It seems like a great mailing program, but I see a lot of limitations here.
I am hoping there aren't as many as I think.
We run the Berkley mailer system MAIL(1-ucb) and it seems to me that Smail
cannot do as much, doesn't come close to, what this system can do. We can
edit a document once we have addressed the document, change the headers,
and use a countless set of Binary options. My point is this. Is
there is a way for Smail to connect to our mailer? Just parse the
paths then envoke our mailer, or do the same things the Berkley mailer
does? Is there something I am missing in my understanding of Smail..?
I just don't want to change from our current mailer, and give up the
countless options it has for ease of path parsing.
Thanks,
Deryk Marien
UUCP: {uunet,decvax,dartvax}!unh!psc90!netnews
BITNET: D_MARIEN@UNHHdarrell@urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM (07/04/88)
/* Written 6:46 am Jul 1, 1988 by netnews@psc90.UUCP in urbsdc:comp.mail.uucp */ /* ---------- "Mail/Smail?!" ---------- */ > I have just got Smail to work, and to read Pathalias output like it should. > It seems like a great mailing program, but I see a lot of limitations here. > I am hoping there aren't as many as I think. > > We run the Berkley mailer system MAIL(1-ucb) and it seems to me that Smail > cannot do as much, doesn't come close to, what this system can do. We can > edit a document once we have addressed the document, change the headers, > and use a countless set of Binary options. My point is this. Is > there is a way for Smail to connect to our mailer? Just parse the > paths then envoke our mailer, or do the same things the Berkley mailer > does? Is there something I am missing in my understanding of Smail..? > > I just don't want to change from our current mailer, and give up the > countless options it has for ease of path parsing. I think you are confusing mail user interface programs and mail delivery systems. Mail(1) is an interface program; it provides a "convenient" interface for the user to read mail and to create mail to be handed to a delivery system. Many systems use sendmail as the delivery system; mail(1) simply calls sendmail with a few arguments and passes the headers and text of the message and sendmail takes care of delivering it in one of several different ways (TCP/IP, uucp, etc.). Smail is also a delivery system and typically uses uucp to deliver mail to remote systems. One of the real advantages of smail is that it will generate paths to remote sites using the pathalias database. Many sites that use smail elect to have it called by sendmail. Once sendmail has decided that the mail needs to be sent via uucp it will invoke smail instead of directly invoking uux. Mail(1) could be changed (assuming you have source) to call smail directly but this may not be desirable as sendmail does some of massaging of the mail headers; I'm not sure how much of this smail actually does. You're right, smail doesn't have a good user interface but that's because it wasn't designed for that purpose. It, however, does an excellent job of generating paths and delivering mail. -- Darrell McIntosh Gould CSD, Urbana Software Development Center Phone: (217) 384-8509 Internet: darrell@xenurus.Urbana.Gould.COM Usenet: uunet!uiucuxc!urbsdc!darrell
darrell@urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM (07/05/88)
> /* Written 6:57 am Jul 4, 1988 by darrell@urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM in urbsdc:comp.mail.uucp */ > /* Written 6:46 am Jul 1, 1988 by netnews@psc90.UUCP in urbsdc:comp.mail.uucp */ > /* ---------- "Mail/Smail?!" ---------- */ > > I have just got Smail to work, and to read Pathalias output like it should. > > It seems like a great mailing program, but I see a lot of limitations here. > > I am hoping there aren't as many as I think. > > I think you are confusing mail user interface programs and mail > delivery systems. I should have mentioned in my previous response that there are some mailers, such as elm, that provide a good user interface and also use the pathalias database to resolve uucp addresses. You might want to look into these as well. -- Darrell McIntosh Gould CSD, Urbana Software Development Center Phone: (217) 384-8509 Internet: darrell@xenurus.Urbana.Gould.COM Usenet: uunet!uiucuxc!urbsdc!darrell