Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!aunro!atha!lyndon
From: lyndon@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: /bin/mail on 3B2.
Message-ID: <1973@aurora.cs.athabascau.ca>
Date: 29 Jun 90 19:01:19 GMT
References: <511@gagme.chi.il.us>
Organization: Athabasca University
Lines: 34

In article <511@gagme.chi.il.us> greg@gagme.chi.il.us (Gregory Gulik) writes:

>A lot of programs have /bin/mail hardcoded into them, which fails
>when a domain type address is specified.

A scan of our source tree shows that the only programs that reference
"/bin/mail" explicitly are cron, mailx, and expreserve. I wouldn't
call this "a lot." I can't speak for any third party software you might
be running, though.

Both cron and expreserve only have to notify local users, by the very
nature of their operation. You can override "/bin/mail" in mailx by
setting its sendmail variable.

>Is there anything I can do to /bin/mail, or is there a direct replacement
>for it that will work properly?

I would recommend getting a copy of smail3.1. Among other things, it
gives you a replacement for /bin/mail. It seems to me that smail2.5
also had a /bin/mail replacement (?)  An alternative would be to port
/bin/mail from BSD. I don't know if it contains any AT&T proprietary
code or not.

You might also consider linking /usr/bin/mail to /usr/bin/mailx, and
putting /usr/bin in front of /bin in everyone's PATH ...




-- 
     Lyndon Nerenberg  VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University
         {alberta,cbmvax,mips}!atha!lyndon || lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca
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