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From: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Sendmail - where should it pick up the fullname from
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.164751.1864@ohm.york.ac.uk>
Date: 17 Apr 91 16:47:51 GMT
Organization: Electronics Department, University of York, UK
Lines: 48

I'm having a problem integrating our new NeXT systems into the
existing mail system here.

The NeXT sendmail does not fill in the full name part of the From:
field, despite me using precisely the same sendmail config files as
we use on our other unix systems.  The netinfo database knows about
users on the machines - including the full name, and I have tried
adding password file type entries into /etc/passwd &
/LocalLibrary/Images/People/passwd.  Sendmail does not appear to
consult any of these sources to determine the fullname.

The relevant parts of my sendmail.cf are:-
	# format of a total name
	# This should give a name of the form:-
	#  Fred Bloggs <fb@here.there.etc>
	Dq$?x$x <$g>$|$g$.

	# Header definitions
	H?F?From: $q

As I said, this works on all our other systems.....

Also, am I alone in thinking that although NeXTmail is great fun, it
is not as well designed in functionality as elm - particularly with
regard to the addresses panel - if I knew local users usernames I
would type them in (far faster), but the thing does not give the
fullnames for these people (even if they are in netinfo, or the
passwd file it scans).  It does not do anything sensible with
aliases - I *know* what the alias names are, and in our case it ends
up displaying a whole bunch of include file specifications, because
it insists on tampering with a sendmail (ie transport layer) alias
file rather than having a nice user friendly MUA level aliasing
scheme.  Maybe I'm just spoilt because I use and support elm here
and although it can't handle sounds, files, graphics and fancy
fonts, it does the job of providing a good mailer service much
better than NeXTmail.

[Let the flame wars commence?? :-) ]

	Nigel.

PS I have tried asking NeXT tech support about this and they keep
   misunderstanding the question.
-- 
# Nigel Metheringham         #  EMail: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk #
# System Administrator       #  Phone: +44 904 432374        #
# Department of Electronics  #  Fax:   +44 904 432335        #
#     University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO1 5DD      #