nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) (04/17/91)
I'm having a problem integrating our new NeXT systems into the existing mail system here. The NeXT sendmail does not fill in the full name part of the From: field, despite me using precisely the same sendmail config files as we use on our other unix systems. The netinfo database knows about users on the machines - including the full name, and I have tried adding password file type entries into /etc/passwd & /LocalLibrary/Images/People/passwd. Sendmail does not appear to consult any of these sources to determine the fullname. The relevant parts of my sendmail.cf are:- # format of a total name # This should give a name of the form:- # Fred Bloggs <fb@here.there.etc> Dq$?x$x <$g>$|$g$. # Header definitions H?F?From: $q As I said, this works on all our other systems..... Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it is not as well designed in functionality as elm - particularly with regard to the addresses panel - if I knew local users usernames I would type them in (far faster), but the thing does not give the fullnames for these people (even if they are in netinfo, or the passwd file it scans). It does not do anything sensible with aliases - I *know* what the alias names are, and in our case it ends up displaying a whole bunch of include file specifications, because it insists on tampering with a sendmail (ie transport layer) alias file rather than having a nice user friendly MUA level aliasing scheme. Maybe I'm just spoilt because I use and support elm here and although it can't handle sounds, files, graphics and fancy fonts, it does the job of providing a good mailer service much better than NeXTmail. [Let the flame wars commence?? :-) ] Nigel. PS I have tried asking NeXT tech support about this and they keep misunderstanding the question. -- # Nigel Metheringham # EMail: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk # # System Administrator # Phone: +44 904 432374 # # Department of Electronics # Fax: +44 904 432335 # # University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO1 5DD #
cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu (04/19/91)
In article <1991Apr17.164751.1864@ohm.york.ac.uk> nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes: Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it is not as well designed in functionality as elm and then writes although elm can't handle sounds, files, graphics and fancy fonts, it does the job of providing a good mailer service much better than NeXTmail. One could only guess about your definition of "functionality". he then writes [Let the flame wars commence?? :-) ] One's favorite mailer is very high on David Letterman's top 10 list of "religious issues in computer technology" and will always generate a very tedious flame war. Sigh... such a waste of precious net bandwidth... and so unconducive to getting one's problems solved. Of course, if your users have no use for such trivial functionality as sonds, files, graphics, and fancy fonts, you could just port elm to your NeXT(s) and use it, neh? -- "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
ddj@zardoz.club.cc.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio) (04/19/91)
>Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it >is not as well designed in functionality... You're not alone in wishing the Mail app were better. I've even seen a better *multimedia* mail application before -- look at the ATK program Messages for a *really* good multimedia mail app. And it works accross platforms, uses 7-bit datastreams in which images, sounds and other objects are encoded in the same stream as the text (none of this separate file stuff), and the format is somewhat human readable (unlike uuencoded compressed tar files). -- DdJ
Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu (04/20/91)
In article <1991Apr17.164751.1864@ohm.york.ac.uk> nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes: >I'm having a problem integrating our new NeXT systems into the >existing mail system here. > >The NeXT sendmail does not fill in the full name part of the From: >field, despite me using precisely the same sendmail config files as >we use on our other unix systems. The netinfo database knows about >users on the machines - including the full name, and I have tried >adding password file type entries into /etc/passwd & >/LocalLibrary/Images/People/passwd. Sendmail does not appear to >consult any of these sources to determine the fullname. > >The relevant parts of my sendmail.cf are:- > # format of a total name > # This should give a name of the form:- > # Fred Bloggs <fb@here.there.etc> > Dq$?x$x <$g>$|$g$. > > # Header definitions > H?F?From: $q > >As I said, this works on all our other systems..... First off, please realize that I'm no sendmail expert (although I did manage to figure out my own sendmail hassles). Second off, looking thru the /etc/sendmail/sendmail.mailhost.cf file that's on the NeXT, the From line I get is built via: #format of a total name Dq$g$?x ($x)$. # (and later on...) H?F?From: $q That produces "From:" lines of the form "From: fb@here.there.etc (Fred Bloggs)" Comparing your example to mine, I can't see any reason why yours would not work as you expect it to. What exactly do you get, if you're not getting what you should be getting? The only other thing I can think of is that maybe you don't have your file in or linked to /etc/sendmail/sendmail.cf? (okay, I realize that's a long shot, but based on what you've written I don't see why you'd have any problems). Not only that, but I changed my "Dq" definition to match what you wrote, and it worked fine for me. Maybe it's something else in your sendmail.cf file? Going back to your earlier comments, the only thing on my NeXT box that knows about my full name is the field I filled in via UserManager (when creating the accounts). I didn't have to edit any other files to get full names working. Hope the above is of some help. >Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it >is not as well designed in functionality as elm... ...(remainder of article ignored, as I'm not up for a religious war today)... - - - - - Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@rpi.edu (note that this article is certainly not going thru the sendmail.cf on my NeXT!!!)
scott@texnext.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (04/23/91)
In article <1991Apr17.164751.1864@ohm.york.ac.uk> nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes:
Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it
is not as well designed in functionality as elm - particularly with
regard to the addresses panel - if I knew local users usernames I
would type them in (far faster), but the thing does not give the
fullnames for these people (even if they are in netinfo, or the
passwd file it scans). It does not do anything sensible with
aliases - I *know* what the alias names are, and in our case it ends
up displaying a whole bunch of include file specifications, because
it insists on tampering with a sendmail (ie transport layer) alias
file rather than having a nice user friendly MUA level aliasing
scheme. Maybe I'm just spoilt because I use and support elm here
and although it can't handle sounds, files, graphics and fancy
fonts, it does the job of providing a good mailer service much
better than NeXTmail.
You're not alone. Seriously, if NeXT didn't keep pounding on the
"multimedia" aspect of Mail.app, I'd think it was a demo that
accidentily was included in /NextApps. I do agree that Elm and
some other mailers are more functional - though I was happy to
see that NeXT fixed at least a couple things in 2.0. Luckly for
me, NeXT's Mail.app supplies just about all I need for mail (except
for the Addresses panel - not to cut down the programmers, or anything,
but the UI on that beast sucks. Half the time it's not obvious
exactly what's selected - for instance, I've often selected a member
of a group for deletion, and then had delete delete the entire group.
The secret it to watch and make sure that the little icon turns into
a _single_ user, rather than the group thingy).
Anyhow, if you want to try out a different mailer on the NeXT, go
get MailManager/EasyMail from the archives. I personally don't care
for them, but then again I have no need for anything they offer (I
don't like the UI, either, but that doesn't matter if Mail.app can't
do what you want while MailManager can, right?). But quite a few
people do use them, and seem to like them just fine, so maybe it's
just me :-).
[To be fair to both sides, if I really disliked Mail.app and
MailManager didn't fit the bill, I'd probably have written
one for myself that did, or be using Elm or Mush or MH.
But, I use Mail.app, and the apparent lack of a ScottMail
on the archives is a large indicator of exactly how much
faith should be placed in my complaints :-) -scott]
Later,
--
scott hess scott@gac.edu
Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad
<I still speak for nobody>
"Simply press Control-right-Shift while click-dragging the mouse . . ."
"I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Banana, banana."