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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!sun!guy
From: guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Standardising the "postmaster" conc
Message-ID: <2842@sun.uucp>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 17:25:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2842
Posted: Sun Sep 29 17:25:41 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 21:05:56 EDT
References: <426@mungunni.OZ> <3700005@ndm20>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 40

> > There are at least a couple of other Unix mailers (other than
> > sendmail/delivermail) that support aliasing and that have seen
> > wide distribution.  These are MH (from Rand & UCI) and MMDF
> > (from CSNET, etc.)
> 
> Yeah, but not everyone has 4.2bsd on a vax. Anyone have a decent mailer for
> a Masscomp? I didn't think so. Mine doesn't even know how to reply to a
> message, much less aliasing and other fun stuff.

1) The term "mailer" has two meanings.  There are "user agents", which are
the programs that read in mailboxes and permit you to say "send message",
"read message", "reply to message", etc..  There are "deliverers", or
whatever they are called, which take a message composed by a user using a
"user agent" - or by a program independent of the "user agent" - and either
delivers it or hands it to a program which can deliver it.  The V7 UNIX mail
program (sometimes called "/bin/mail") provided with V7, S3, S5, etc. is a
"user agent".  On some systems, it is also a "deliverer".  Berkeley Mail,
called "Mail", and the variant called "mailx" provided with System V Release
2, is also a "user agent" which acts as a "deliverer" on some systems.  MH
is also a "user agent"; I don't know if it ever acts as a "deliverer".
"sendmail", "delivermail", and MMDF are "deliverers"; MMDF may provide a
"user agent" as well.

I'm somewhat surprised Masscomp doesn't provide Mail or "mailx".  I suspect
they currently provide one or the other in their latest releases.  MH may
run on non-4.2BSD systems; the chances are good that it runs on 4.2BSD
systems which aren't VAXes (as pointed out before, "has 4.2BSD" is NOT
equivalent to "is a VAX"; see the "Organization" field of this posting -
unless, of course, you're running a news system which doesn't understand
that field - for an example).

MMDF may also run on non-4.2BSD systems, and probably runs on 4.2BSD systems
which aren't VAXes.  "sendmail" can also be coaxed to run on non-4.2BSD
systems.  It definitely runs on *our* non-VAX 4.2BSD systems.

"/bin/mail" is a lousy user agent.  If your system has nothing better, beat
up your vendor.  It is also an inadequate deliverer if you intend to mail to
someone whose address is something other than "<uucp_neighbor>!<string>".

	Guy Harris


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