Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert
From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: 'Apparently-To: ' replacing 'To:'
Message-ID: <1991May6.222453.15431@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 6 May 91 22:24:53 GMT
References: <1991May6.210024.4775@ddtg.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 27

In article <1991May6.210024.4775@ddtg.com> maples@ddtg.com (Greg Maples) writes:
>While I'm busy submitting news today, does anyone have a 
>clue as to why my sending mail as mail user@machine (inside
>our domain) would be replacing To:user with Apparently To: ?

  When you use '/usr/ucb/mail user@machine', the 'mail command', namely
/usr/ucb/mail creates a message header with 'To:' and possible 'Subject:'
and 'Cc:' etc.  However if you use '/bin/mail user@machine' you are using
a much simpler mail program which just takes the message as-is, and does not
add any headers.  When mailing news this is often appropriate, since the message
already has headers, and you don't want an extraneous extra set.

  When mailing news, this way, however, although there are already headers,
there is no 'To:' header (not appropriate for news).  When 'sendmail' sees the
message it notices the absence of a recipient header, so creates one.  It uses
'Apparently-To:' to distinguish it from a 'To:' created by the original author
of the message.

  If you don't like it, don't feed messages directly to /bin/mail, but
instead pipe them first through a sed script which discards unneeded headers
and adds a 'To:'.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940