[comp.mail.misc] Where is the From: header created?

nolan@helios.unl.edu (Michael Nolan) (01/23/91)

On my NCR Tower/450 (not this sytem) running V.2, I don't get From: headers 
when I send e-mail.  I'm using mailx (mostly because I'm too lazy to find/
figure out anything better.)  What program is supposed to place the From: line 
in the header?

Michael Nolan
nolan@helios.unl.edu

Craig_Everhart@TRANSARC.COM (01/24/91)

Beware: possible inflammatory content ahead.

Excerpts from netnews.comp.mail.misc: 23-Jan-91 Where is the From:
header c.. Michael Nolan@helios.unl (283)

> On my NCR Tower/450 (not this sytem) running V.2, I don't get From: headers 
> when I send e-mail.  I'm using mailx (mostly because I'm too lazy to find/
> figure out anything better.)  What program is supposed to place the From: line 
> in the header?

Some folks (like me) think that it's the job of a mail composition agent
to build a From: field, while some folks think that composition agents
don't have to dirty their hands with such things and thus leave it up to
sendmail (part MTA, part user agent) to add them.

Certainly a message needs a From: field before it leaves your site, and
before it's finally delivered (if it should be delivered locally), if
you buy into RFC 822 at all.

		Craig

davecb@yunexus.YorkU.CA (David Collier-Brown) (01/24/91)

Michael Nolan@helios.unl (283) asks:
| On my NCR Tower/450 (not this sytem) running V.2, I don't get From: headers 
| when I send e-mail.  I'm using mailx (mostly because I'm too lazy to find/
| figure out anything better.)  What program is supposed to place the From: line 
| in the header?

  Sendmail thinks that the user agent should have the first say, but will
generate one (via the sendmail.cf incantation ``H?F?From: $q'') if and
only if no From: line already exists.

--dave
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA | lethe!dave
72 Abitibi Ave.,      | 
Willowdale, Ontario,  | Even cannibals don't usually eat their
CANADA. 416-223-8968  | friends.