[comp.mail.elm] Getting headers right on Xenix 2.3.2

clay@uci.mn.org (Clayton Haapala) (05/24/90)

In article <4179@thebes.Thalatta.COM> campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell) writes:
>I have a problem with elm on Xenix running smail.  Any mail going to a local
>user runs through the stock Xenix mail program after smail gets done with it.

>Does anybody have a simple fix for this before I write my own
>/bin/lmail program that doesn't add this additional garbage at the
>front of the file?
>
Are you using Chip Salzenberg's XENIX Smail patches?  With those installed, 
things are working great for my XENIX system.  You wouldn't be using /bin/lmail
with those -- he replaces execmail with a program with more sense.  You can
get them from me, or from the archive server that Chip set up.  Don't know the
address for that, though.
-- 
Clayton Haapala                ...!bungia!uci!clay (clay@uci.com)
Unified Communications Inc.    "Every morning I get in the Queue.
3001 Metro Drive - Suite 500    'n get on the Bus that takes me to you."
Bloomington, MN  55425             -- the Who

shawn@marilyn.UUCP (Shawn P. Stanley) (05/26/90)

In article <4179@thebes.Thalatta.COM> campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell) writes:
>I have a problem with elm on Xenix running smail.  Any mail going to a local
>user runs through the stock Xenix mail program after smail gets done with it.
>
>The Xenix mail adds
>[example header things]

I think I know what your problem is.  smail is handing your local mailer
headers it can't understand, which is perfectly understandable since the
Xenix 2.3 local mailer doesn't know what to do with Internet-style paths;
also, it can't handle certain types of header lines, and if it finds any
it doesn't understand, it simply gives up on deciphering what it needs to
decipher.

The Xenix 2.3 rmail used to handle some of the translation for the local
mailer, but it couldn't handle Internet-style paths either.  Which is one
of the reasons you're using smail...

One idea is to write your own lmail, which would simply translate the
header into a format Elm can handle.  (It would have to do things like
changing 'From user TIME DATE remote from system' to 'From system!user
TIME DATE', etc.)  I've done this, and messages appear wonderfully in
Elm with their author and subject fields appropriately displayed.
Since I renamed the renamed-old-mailer (which went from mail to lmail)
to OLDlmail, I can still use OLDlmail for local things, like checking
local mail to uucp, root, news, etc.

One thing I haven't done is fixed the header lines for messages from
myself, to myself, through other systems.  (Thus, this wonderful testing
method doesn't work so well.)  Elm doesn't appear to like a from-you in
combination with a to-you, which produces dumb author and subject
fields.  If the lmail-replacement can figure out that it's from you, and
if it subsequently removes the 'To: ...' header line, all will appear
well in Elm.

If you want the source to my lmail-replacement, I'll e-mail it to you.
It isn't very large, and it's probably easy to add on to.  (At the
worst, it will give you some small idea of what to do yourself!)
--
Shawn P. Stanley         shawn@marilyn.marilyn.mn.org
bungia!marilyn!shawn     {rosevax,crash}!orbit!marilyn!shawn

shawn@marilyn.UUCP (Shawn P. Stanley) (05/26/90)

In article <1990May20.021304.2658@DSI.COM> syd@DSI.COM writes:
>campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell) writes:
>>I have a problem with elm on Xenix running smail.  Any mail going to a local
>>user runs through the stock Xenix mail program after smail gets done with it.
>The problem here is that your smail is not set up correctly.  Smail
>on Xenix cannot use mail for local delivery, but must either use
>its own local mail, or /usr/lib/mail/execmail for local delivery.

The local mailer is CAUSING the problems.  Also, isn't execmail packaged
with sendmail?

>optionally
>totally scrap the /usr/lib/mail/execmail, but then you must replace
>/bin/mail with the svbinmail or equivalent that comes with smail.

The svbinmail utility simply calls the local mailer and does no message
processing itself, so that isn't quite a solution.  The answer is to
create an lmail replacement which will massage the header lines so Elm
can accept them.  (I've done this myself; trust me.)  If this is done,
then svbinmail will work but it will be an unnecessary 'middleman' and
can be skipped in favor of going directly to the replacement lmail.
--
Shawn P. Stanley         shawn@marilyn.marilyn.mn.org
bungia!marilyn!shawn     {rosevax,crash}!orbit!marilyn!shawn

chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) (06/04/90)

[ Followups to comp.unix.xenix ]

According to clay@uci.mn.org (Clayton Haapala):
>Are you using Chip Salzenberg's XENIX Smail patches?  With those installed, 
>things are working great for my XENIX system.

Yet another unsolicited testimonial.  :-)

But I don't have an archive server, other than my fingers.  So, if
anyone out there needs patches for using Smail under Xenix, just let
me know at one of the addresses in my sig.

By the way, I made up a new set of patches and sent them to Rich $alz.
So they should be appearing in comp.sources.unix... someday.  My new
Smail 2.5 patches support people using Xenix and/or people using
Deliver 2.0.
-- 
Chip Salzenberg at ComDev/TCT     <chip@tct.uucp>, <uunet!ateng!tct!chip>