Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: Source Code For Berkeley Mail? Message-ID: <1990Sep23.144419.9520@mp.cs.niu.edu> Date: 23 Sep 90 14:44:19 GMT References: <4072@rsiatl.UUCP> <1990Sep22.231012.25710@news.clarkson.edu> Organization: Northern Illinois University Lines: 28 In article <1990Sep22.231012.25710@news.clarkson.edu> ahd@clutx.clarkson.edu writes: >For those who live to beat the Sysadmin, however, try: > > ln -s /usr/lib/sendmail mail > ./mail > Please don't try this, folks. It won't work, and will only frustrate you and you system administrator. For those who are still confused, 'mail' (whether /usr/ucb/Mail or /bin/mail) is a user mail agent. 'sendmail' is a mail transfer agent. What 'Mail' does is add necessary headers, then invoke 'sendmail' to transfer the mail. There is nothing that 'Mail' does which cannot be done with a simple text editor, perhaps followed by file indirection to get the mail to 'sendmail'. The originator of this news series would be better advised to learn to do this with an editor, and forget about sources. Why go to a lot of trouble compiling sources, leave information around on your directory that a nasty sysadmin can use to blame you for circumventing his rules, etc, when 'vi' can do the job. Moreover, if the sysadmin really knows his job, he has also disabled some 'suid' programs which you cannot do without, and which having access to public sources won't help unless you can become root. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115. +1-815-753-6940