Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:2639 comp.mail.misc:1544
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!ncsuvx!mcnc!decvax!zinn!mem
From: mem@zinn.MV.COM (Mark E. Mallett)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: smail 3.x
Message-ID: <437@zinn.MV.COM>
Date: 16 Jan 89 04:40:28 GMT
References: <392@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <6616@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <430@zinn.MV.COM> <7095@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Reply-To: mem@zinn.MV.COM (Mark E. Mallett)
Organization: Zinn Computer Co., Litchfield NH
Lines: 66

In article <7095@xanth.cs.odu.edu> wisner@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Bill Wisner) writes:
> In some article, mm writes:
>>Would it be possible to get a synopsis of important new features, in order
>>to entertain a suggestion-and-denial period?  There's a bunch of things I've
>>been hoping for...
>
>There is no way I could possibly extoll all the virtues of Smail from memory,
>particularly at this hour. Why not post your suggestions and denials? I'm
>sure the Smail 3.1 authors are lurking here somewhere; you might give them
>some ideas.

Thanks.  But I have no denials; I assumed those would come after I made
the suggestions :-)

I suspect that you've had the same (or more) wishes that I have, otherwise
you wouldn't have undertaken this venture.  But OK, here's a couple of
things that I can recall wishing for:

- smail 2.5 provides for a global smart-host.  I'd like to be able to
  have smart-hosts that are tied to the facility provided.  For
  instance, for my domain (MV.COM), I want member nodes, particularly
  gateways, to be able to identify the host that does alias
  translations (fullname and otherwise), but only if the local
  translation fails.  And I'd like to have a specification of a
  domain-level smart-host that knows about path resolution for the
  domain -- not the same as alias translation, mind you.  This would
  be a major administrative boon.  I'd like to be able to specify this
  by domain, or by pattern (but please don't make me look at another
  sendmail.cf file -- it's a black hole as well as a black art).  Note
  that I'm talking about uucp-only sites; YP is not an option.

- I'd like to be able to do aliasing based on username AND/OR sitename.
  This has come up a number of times, for instance when registering a
  new domain member who's machine isn't available but who wants to
  start distributing the new address; mail to user@newsite should be
  redirected to user@oldsite for a while.  For instance (this just
  came up again in an e-mail discussion) if a node goes down or
  changes name, traffic to that node should be redirected.

- tee-aliasing:  Many is the time that I've wanted to make an alias for
  a user that splits mail off to other recipients, but still delivers
  it to the user named in the mail.  smail 2.5, with its alias grid
  from which "used" translations are deleted, will not do this.
  Example:  perhaps I want to make sure I see all mail that goes to
  "admin", but I hardly ever check it.  At the same time, I still want
  it to go into the admin bucket.  I would make an alias:

	admin	mem admin

  and it would do the right thing.  You say you support sendmail's
  /usr/lib/aliases; it's been a few years since I did any sendmail
  stuff, and I've forgotten if that's supported.


Thanks for your attention.  Other items on my wishlist have been ionized
and disolved in the back of my brain, someday they will condense and
reform. 

What are chances of getting a test version of this software?

-mm-
-- 
Mark E. Mallett  Zinn Computer Co/ PO Box 4188/ Manchester NH/ 03103 
Bus. Phone: 603 645 5069    Home: 603 424 8129     BIX: mmallett
uucp: mem@zinn.MV.COM  (  ...{decvax|elrond|harvard}!zinn!mem   )
Northern MA and Southern NH consultants:  Ask me about MV.COM