Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:5278 gnu.emacs.help:1825 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!intelhf!ichips!iwarp.intel.com!gargoyle!chinet!les From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,gnu.emacs.help Subject: Re: wanted: mail user agent that verifies local addresses before sending Message-ID: <1991Apr22.161201.5966@chinet.chi.il.us> Date: 22 Apr 91 16:12:01 GMT References: <1991Apr18.210755.18654@chinet.chi.il.us> Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX Lines: 36 In article Dan_Jacobson@ihlpz.ATT.COM writes: >[I'm saying that feedmail.el passes mail to /bin/[r]mail, which is >supposed to be on all unix machines, as opposed to /usr/lib/sendmail. >I'm saying that feedmail.el can be popped in place, without having to >be adjusted for whatever mail system you're running... I wasn't saying >that it had magic powers to pre-forecast remote errors.] >Leslie> What if the thing that happens to be named /bin/rmail just >Leslie> queues messages and delivers in another process? >Depending on the value of the Emacs variable mail-interactive >("Documentation: Non-nil means when sending a message wait for and >display errors. nil means let mailer mail back a message to report >errors."), Bill's feedmail.el will choose /bin/rmail if you want >mailed back errors, and /bin/mail, if you want instant errors. >[Of course it's customizable.] That sounds fairly reasonable, but you might look for /usr/lib/sendmail first and let it verify the addresses before sending if it is there. I suppose someone has a machine where sendmail (or smail3 in it's sendmail disguise) exists but isn't the real mail transport. The obvious problem here is that there really is no standard for a mail user agent and mail transport agent to communicate beyond actually handing the message over. In the fairly common situation of a hub machine handling alias processing for a group, it may not even be possible. A semi-solution would be to make the user agent able to parse the common error bounces and help fix them, or at least delete the added header cruft so you have your original back. I don't know of any that offer to do this, though. This approach would have the advantage of using a single recovery method for both local and remote errors. In the case of a hub machine expanding aliases, the user may not know the difference. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us