Harald.Eikrem@elab-runit.sintef.no (12/05/90)
The other night I was getting to wonder how this could be accomplished, and found no other mechanism than the one I have always known; invoking sendmail with -f`sender'. However, I prefer NOT to invoke sendmail a second time just to be able to modify the `sender' content. So I sat down to see if there was some simple way to enhance 5.65 (+IDA 1.3.8) to act on a :sender: keyword in the beginning of an alias list, inspired by the :include: notation. I got it to do what I wanted all right, but there are a couple of problems left unsolved. It now depends on whether there already is a From: header field when a message passes the :sender: modification, if there is, all works the way I anticipated; if no From: field, it comes out equal to the :sender: specifi- cation. However, this has the effect that if anyone now uses /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/Mail to submit on the aliasing mailhost, pronto!, the originator becomes substituted from :sender:. So I now have to tell in-house people to refrain from using /bin/mail and /usr/ucb/Mail when submitting to the mailinglists in question. Most other mail UI programs I know of supplies a From: header themselves before handing over to sendmail. My question is of course if similar enhancements have been attempted else- where. I would also like to get opinions on whether this feature is desired with the standard distribution(s). I just cant stop wonder why it is'nt. --Harald E