Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!caen.engin.umich.edu!paul
From: paul@caen.engin.umich.edu (Paul Killey)
Subject: Re: mail delivery over intermittent Internet link
Message-ID: <1991Mar25.004815.9342@engin.umich.edu>
Sender: news@engin.umich.edu (CAEN Netnews)
Reply-To: paul@caen.engin.umich.edu (Paul Killey)
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
References: <4859@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> <1991Mar15.215211.25654@csn.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1991 00:48:15 GMT


some time ago, i worked on mods to sendmail so that it would sign on to
a mainframe (a.k.a lameframe or mailframe) do a TURN, and then pick up
the mail the mainframe had to send out.  it ran over an x.29 line and a
serial line.

it needed a password to sign on with, so it was felt that the TURN was
OK.  to send its mail out, it would log in to the sendmail machine, and
its login shell was basically sendmail.

instead of being a giant with feet of clay, this thing was an amdahl (now a
3090) with feet of a Vax 750.

Many changes in daemon.c, but it worked.  undergrads would entertain
themselves by sending messages composed of some combination of control
S, interrupt characters and end-of-file characters which the mainframe
would interpret as such and stop or croak the mail process.


it was a "short term" solution that was supposed to tide the mainframe
crew over until they got something modern, like tcp working.

five short years later, they are still using it.

nothing is temporary, and nothing is permanent.  just like where you
work, right? -:)

anyway, it was a production setup that did many messages.  and is still
doing them.

my partner (hi emv) and i had to get different jobs to get away from
that monster.

--paul