Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!decvax!zinn!ditka!kls
From: kls@ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: no sendmail but Elm tries anyway
Message-ID: <1107@ditka.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 89 06:38:21 GMT
Reply-To: kls@ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz)
Organization: Inaction Central, Los Alamos, New Mexico
Lines: 32

I just installed the beta version of Elm 2.2 here, and
quickly ran into a minor glitch.  I don't have sendmail
running here on ditka, but I do have the sendmail sources
in a directory (called sendmail, what else) in my home
directory.

Configure didn't find sendmail in any of the usual places
and therefore properly configured Elm to use smail/rmail
instead.

I was rather surprised to find that when I tried to send
mail using Elm from within my home directory, Elm barfed
with a complaint about not being able to execute sendmail.

Turns out Configure didn't remove references to sendmail
in the code or change a compile-time option.  Instead, it
left the "sendmail" definition defined to be "sendmail",
sans any path.  Elm kept hopefully looking for a sendmail
executable in my current directory, and the directory
(with usual permissions, including "execute") matched its
wildest dreams.

The check for an executable sendmail is done in mailmsg1.c;
I assume some kind of conditional compilation should go
around this sucker though I'll leave that up to somebody
more knowledgeable of the Elm code and configuration.

-- 
Karl Swartz		|UUCP	{ames!hc!rt1,decuac!netsys}!ditka!kls
1-505/667-7777 (work)	|ARPA	rt1!ditka!kls@hc.dspo.gov
1-505/672-3113 (home)	|BIX	kswartz
"I never let my schooling get in the way of my education."  (Twain)