I totally disagree with your statement. While I do have a bit of experience
with sendmail since I participate in running the BLU server, my sendmail on
my SuSE 6.4 system is not much more than out of the box. I have fetchmail
grabbing email from the ISP every few minutes, and I keep port 25 open
since I can receive email directly.
Linux is a multi-user system. But you have choices in the type of email you
want to use. I'm very picky in the email program I use. I want to be able
to easily spoof my from address (such as [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]),
and I want to easily select my signature. Many of these clients you mention
make it more difficult. With exmh I have pull down menus for everything. On
Windows, Eudora Pro and Pegasus provide identities for that.
Additionally, since Linux is a multi-user system, there are local email is
still somewhat necessary because some things cause mail to be sent to the
root account.
But, if you use Linux essentially as a single user, those self contained
clients do work and are easy to set up.
Benjamin Scott wrote:
> I recommend the use of a fully independent mail client, such as Netscape
> Mail, KMail, or any other similar program. Such programs do not rely on the
> local system at all. Instead, they communicate directly with your ISP's mail
> servers. This is the model your ISP expects, and the one most suited for
> someone with a transient, attended, dynamic dial-up account.
>
> The reason this is better is that it offloads the work to your ISP. If you
> persist in using system integrated mail programs, you need to configure your
> system as a fully-working mail host. *This is hard to do.* You will have to
> spend a lot of effort, and likely experience some pain. I (and likely others
> here) am perfectly willing to help you out, but I suspect it is really not
> what you want to do, and just give you the impression that "Linux is hard to
> use". That is not a belief I wish to perpetuate.
>
> If, on the other hand, you *do* want to go through with it all, whether
> because you want to learn, you're a stubborn bastard like me, or your own
> reasons entirely, than read on. :-)
>
> > I would like then use mutt as my mua ( correct buzzword ??)
>
> mutt is a Mail User Agent, yes. :-)
>
> MUA = Mail User Agent, a program to read and originate messages. Most
> things people consider to be "mail programs" are MUAs.
>
> MTA = Mail Transport Agent, a program which moves messages from one locatio
> n
> to another. Sendmail and Fetchmail are popular examples. A great many "mail
> programs" are also MTAs -- Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Communicator, and
> Eudora Mail, for example, all include POP clients, which are a form of (very
> limited) MTA.
>
> These distinctions are important, because the tricky part is getting the
> mail from one place to another (MTA). Reading it is easy. Sometimes the
> choice of "mail program" is important, and sometimes it is irrelevant. It
> depends on what MTA features said program might include, and what the
> situation requires.
>
> > I used send mail as my mta.
>
> I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sendmail is not well-suited for
> the home user with a dynamic IP dialup account. The M4 configuration
> mechanism Sendmail uses assumes you have a well-connected system, present in
> the DNS. You can make it work, but it will be painful.
>
> I notice the normally vocal crowd of people advocating other MTAs is silent
> on this issue. Is there no such thing as a Unix compatible MTA which works
> well for this scenario?
>
> > I am using ximaian evolution for for writing this e-mail I DO NOT
> > recommend it .
>
> Evolution is still a work in progress. As such, it is not guaranteed to
> be useful, or even run. :-)
>
> > I have 2 problems
> > 1. I cannot get sendmail to run. I am using config.mc:
> > FEATURE(`nullclient',`mail.eagle1sr.com')
>
> The nullclient feature is *NOT* what you want to use. A Sendmail null
> client is designed to basically be a "remote extension" of a central site mai
> l
> host. All mail is delivered through that central host. A bare minimum of
> local processing is done. No local delivery is possible. The local machine'
> s
> identity is obliterated. Most other Sendmail features are disabled.
>
> Remove any "nullclient" references completely.
>
> > FEATURE(`nocanonify')
>
> Turn this off, too. nocanonify is designed for situations where any host
> or domain names are guaranteed to be cannonified already (not the case), and
> where canonicalization is not possible or would produce incorrect results.
>
> > MASQUERADE_AS(`eagle1st.com')
> > FEATURE(`masquerade_envelope')
> > define(`SMART_HOST',`mail.eagle1st.com')
> > FEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')
>
> Note that all four of the above are fundamentally incompatible with the
> "nullclient" feature, so even if you *were* a valid null client (which you ar
> e
> not), your config is broken. Nix the nocanonify and nullclient features, and
> these make more sense. However, you need to understand what they are doing.
>
> When you masquerade as a domain, you tell Sendmail to pretend to *be* that
> mail domain. Any mail coming from your system will claim to have come from
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, where <somebody> is whatever local account sent the
> message. If your login name is the same as your ISP account at
> <eagle1st.com>, this makes sense. But if, e.g., you send mail as root to a
> non-local address, it will look like it came from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. If
> anyone replies to that message, you will not receive it. You also run the
> risk of incurring the wrath of any admin at <eagle1st.com> if you accidentall
> y
> impersonate someone else.
>
> So why would you, personally, want to masquerade as <eagle1st.com>?
> Because it is required if your MUA uses the Unix /usr/sbin/sendmail interface
> to send mail. Mail sent via that method is processed by your system MTA,
> which is currently Sendmail. Sendmail will send that message on to where eve
> r
> it is going, and you want your From: address to be valid. I believe Mutt use
> s
> /usr/sbin/sendmail, so you need to do this. (I do not use Mutt myself; anyon
> e
> here who does and can say better, please speak up.)
>
> Many mail programs have built-in functionality which can send mail directly
> to an SMTP listener. (This is the usual method in the MS-Windows world,
> where the OS has no standard mail API, like Unix does.) In that case, you
> simply configure your mail program to send mail via your ISP's SMTP relay, an
> d
> all is well. See above about a fully independent mail program.
>
> The other three configuration lines are easier to explain. Masquerading th
> e
> envelope just means the SMTP "FROM" command also uses your masquerade entry.
>
> For a case like yours, where your system host name is doubtless not in the
> DNS, you need this. The "SMART_HOST" definition tells Sendmail to forward al
> l
> non-local mail to the specified host. Your ISP's mail server can do a better
> job of sending mail than your system can, so this is also good. Lastly, you
> tell Sendmail to accept unresolvable domains, because on a dial-up system suc
> h
> as yours, DNS will not always be available to resolve domains.
>
> > 2. When I run fetchmail, my mail is parsed into the different folder s of
> > my spool directory '/var/spool/mail/*folder'.
>
> This is also broken. /var/spool/mail/ is where the *system* delivers mail
> to user accounts. Users *SHOULD NOT* keep their own mail boxes in that
> directory. Use a directory in your home directory (I believe mutt uses
> $HOME/Mail/) for this purpose instead.
>
> --
> Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not |
> | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or |
> | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. |
>
>
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--
Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org
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