[comp.unix.xenix] Using rn

frankb@usource.UUCP (Frank Bicknell) (06/03/89)

I was really glad to get rn working under SCO Xenix, but I had a
bit of a problem using the 'r' and 'R' options.  For you vnews
and readnews fans, those are the options used to reply to an
article via e-mail (preferred over 'f' and 'F').  Anyway, it
turns out that rn calls a shell script called 'Rnmail' which
handles the generation of the mail piece, then ships it off to a
mailer to do the dirty work.  My configuration (as assembled by
Configure) was sending the mail to recnews... which had no idea
what to do with the internet formats I had told Configure to use.

I chose to use internet reply addresses since I've had such
awful results with those Path: addresses being munged or
whatever.  Could it be that bang paths are directional? :)

Anyway, a quick flick of the software knife fixes:

For those who have not yet run Configure, ie newcomers, make the
following change to Configure:

1503a1504,1505
>     else if usg && $test -f /bin/rmail; then
> 	mailer=/bin/rmail

I'm not sure that the test is a good one.  I seem to remember
that rmail exists for other mailers (ie that's the generic
name).  It might be better to test for /usr/bin/smail (a link to
/bin/rmail) since we specifically want a mailer which will
handle internet-style addresses.  Comments? 

And if you have already done your Configure and have been living
with this problem, just change the config.sh and re-make.  There
is one line about the mailer which I changed to look like:

mailer='/bin/rmail'

You could presumably do 'make install', but I just copied Rnmail
to /usr/bin.news and it seems to work great.
-- 
Frank Bicknell
UniSource; 1405 Main St, Ste 709; Sarasota, FL 34236
killer!usource!frankb || frankb@usource.UUCP