Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!TRANSARC.COM!Craig_Everhart From: Craig_Everhart@TRANSARC.COM Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Re: Mailing list remailer Message-ID: <4a8=EwL0BwwO0tpEYR@transarc.com> Date: 9 Apr 90 16:11:40 GMT References: <175@brazil.cambridge.apple.com> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 32 (A) I think sendmail will do this itself if you have the right aliases. That is, if it's expanding entry foo-list, then if you have an entry for owner-foo-list, it will be used as the Errors-to: address in headers of outgoing mail. Of course, this is somewhat brain-damaged, since error messages don't usually go to an Errors-to: line. In Internet land, they go to the envelope-from information, which in SMTP comes from the MAIL FROM: command. (Substitute your favorite protocol here.) Interpreting RFC 822 (mail header stds) without RFC 821 (SMTP stds), you might think that error messages are supposed to go to the Sender: address. (B) If mail is submitted through some special path, you can specify the ``-r'' (same as ``-f'') option argument in the invocation line for sendmail that enqueues this piece of mail in sendmail's queue. That is, rather than saying /usr/lib/sendmail foo-list you could say /usr/lib/sendmail -r foo-list-request foo-list to get it to set the envelope-from information to the argument to the ``-r'' option, ``foo-list-request'' in this case. (C) AMS/AMDS distribution lists, in software free for the running in the X.V11R4 distribution, run exactly this way. A ``distribution list'' in its parlance is not simply a new set of mail destinations, but also new envelope-from information. That is, at the same time as you replace the envelope-to information to get mail to go to a different place, it's a sensible default action to replace the envelope-from information so that error messages about redistributing the mail get sent to the list maintainer who can ostensibly do something about them. Craig