[comp.mail.sendmail] Reply-To

Hopkins@np1a.bristol.ac.uk (Richard Hopkins) (12/01/88)

Does anyone know how I can set a "Reply-To:" field in the context of
Berkley Mail and sendmail? What I want to do is be able to set this
to something of my choice (e.g. HopkinsRJ@uk.ac.bristol), rather
than code it into sendmail.cf. It feels like there should be a way
of achieving this through appropriate environment variable settings,
but I can't work it out!

Richard Hopkins

(Please reply to HopkinsRJ@uk.ac.bristol - sigh!)

Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk (Andrew Findlay) (12/01/88)

| Another question - is it possible to change the "From:"
| field with something in .mailrc or whatever; there has

Not sure about 'mail', but 'elm' can be set up to do that (or insert a
Reply-To: if you wish)

| been some discussion about systems that are so sloppy
| they send out usernames in mail addresses recently...

Most do..

| Not security-conscious un*x of course, but ....

Most do..

| The sort of thing we might want is for mail to come "from"
| an official alias for the user (eg S.V.Platt for me); 
| rather than from the <username> ...

You want the IDA sendmail enhancement kit. We use that at Brunel. It
allows us to map the default 'username@ee.brunel.ac.uk' address into
the official 'Full.Name@brunel.ac.uk' version that you see outside.
The reverse translation is done for incoming mail, of course!

Andrew

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|  From Andrew Findlay at Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK  |
|  Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk          phone: +44 895 74000 x2512  |
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steve@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk (Steve Platt) (12/01/88)

Another question - is it possible to change the "From:"
field with something in .mailrc or whatever; there has
been some discussion about systems that are so sloppy
they send out usernames in mail addresses recently...

Not security-conscious un*x of course, but ....

The sort of thing we might want is for mail to come "from"
an official alias for the user (eg S.V.Platt for me); 
rather than from the <username> ...

Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk (Andrew Findlay) (12/01/88)

| Thanks for the responses - seems that there is no easy solution to
| our problem, although I like the sound of the IDA enhancements.

A new version was recently published on comp.sources.unix - in the UKC
archive if not still in your own News system.

| As you'll see from the header of this note, however, I have
| managed to generate the appropriate Reply-To field, but it 
| necessitated changing the sendmail code (which I am very loathe
| to do). It was strightforward enough; follow the example of setting
| up FullName in main.c and envelope.c, defining an appropriate
| sendmail macro (I chose $R) and user environment variable (REPLYTO
| in my case).

I am sure it is WRONG to have Sendmail do things like that!
Sendmail is a Message Transport Agent. Specifying a *preference* for
where you want replies to go is surely a User Agent's business.

If you must modify something to do this, change Mail. Elm already
allows it.

| There is still the problem of replying to reply-to fields, however!
| We have Replyall set in /usr/lib/Mail.rc which means that "reply"
| doesn't reply to the Reply-To field, while "Reply" does!! If Replyall
| isn't set, then the problem is "inverted". Aaarrghh!!

Use elm!

Andrew

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|  From Andrew Findlay at Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK  |
|  Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk          phone: +44 895 74000 x2512  |
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Hopkins@qgb.bristol.ac.uk (Richard Hopkins) (12/02/88)

Thanks for the responses - seems that there is no easy solution to
our problem, although I like the sound of the IDA enhancements.

As you'll see from the header of this note, however, I have
managed to generate the appropriate Reply-To field, but it 
necessitated changing the sendmail code (which I am very loathe
to do). It was strightforward enough; follow the example of setting
up FullName in main.c and envelope.c, defining an appropriate
sendmail macro (I chose $R) and user environment variable (REPLYTO
in my case).

There is still the problem of replying to reply-to fields, however!
We have Replyall set in /usr/lib/Mail.rc which means that "reply"
doesn't reply to the Reply-To field, while "Reply" does!! If Replyall
isn't set, then the problem is "inverted". Aaarrghh!!

Richard