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README.TCP
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1997-02-02
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Using Elm for OS/2 together with IBM TCP/IP's sendmail
------------------------------------------------------
[It is assumed that you have read the README.OS2 file first.]
Introduction
------------
This version of Elm also supports TCP/IP sendmail (provided by IBM
in TCP/IP for OS/2) as an alternative mail transport. This is done by
faking to Elm that it would run with UUPC.
The OS/2 Warp 3.0 Internet Access Kit can also provide sendmail
transport. However, it is initially configured for POP3 mail, which is
NOT officially supported by this release of Elm. However, a user has
reported success in setting up such a configuration. Please see his
instructions in the file README.POP.
Configuration File Setup
------------------------
You just make a UUPC system.rc file with the required settings for Elm
and let the UUPCSYSRC and UUPCUSRRC environment variables both point
to the same file. Elm recognizes that it is working with sendmail by
reading the rmail=sendmail line in that dummy .rc file.
See the sample elm-tcp.rc file which shows how to set up a .rc file to
use Elm with sendmail.
The .rc file must contain the settings "rmail=sendmail", as a flag for
Elm that it runs with TCP/IP sendmail and the settings "NodeName=",
"Domain=", "ConfDir=", "SpoolDir=", "MailDir=", "TempDir=", "PostMaster=",
"MailBox=", "Name=", "Home=", "Editor=" and "Pager=" and optionally
also a "FromDomain=" and a "ReplyTo=" setting.
If you use sendmail, you have a choice how to run sendmail from within
Elm when sending mail. The default behaviour is for Elm to run
sendmail synchronously, i.e. to wait until it has finished sending the
message. This way you are told about an eventual failure.
Optionally, you can cause Elm to run sendmail asynchonously
("detached"), i.e. NOT to wait until it has completed. This may be
preferable if you are connected to a busy network where delivery of
messages can take a while (up to a minute, for example) and you don't
always want to wait that long.
Both modes of running IBM's sendmail.exe require a small helper
program for Elm (the included sndmail.exe program) to clean up the
temporary message file after sendmail completes, especially in the
case of "detached" use of sendmail. You must install the sndmail.exe
program on your system (in a directory listed in PATH).
To select the "detached" mode for sendmail, add the line
"Options=background" to your .rc file (see comment in the included
sample elm-tcp.rc file).
Incoming Mail
-------------
Incoming mail can be received by IBM's sendmail program which is
included with TCP/IP for OS/2 (version 2.0 base kit or version 3.0 and
above as included with Warp Connect and Warp Server).
Depending on if you use TCP/IP 2.0 or TCP/IP 3.0, the sendmail program
will act a bit different. For TCP/IP 2.0, it will deliver incoming
mail into a directory to be processed by the LaMail program. For
TCP/IP 3.0, it will be delivered to Ultimail/Lite. Both modes can NOT
be used with Elm.
So, in both cases, you have to modify your sendmail.cf file to deliver
mail into a format readable with Elm. For this purpose, a small
utility (rcvmail.exe) is included with this version of Elm that can be
used as the delivery agent with IBM's sendmail.
The rcvmail.exe takes two or three arguments. The first is the
absolute path of the directory where the user mailbox files are
stored (the same directory specified with MailDir= in the .rc file).
The second is the user name for which the mail is delivered. The
optional third argument is the option -u which must precede the
other two, if used. The -u option causes rcvmail.exe to add the UUPC
style message separators to the messages stored in the user mailbox
files, which is recommended when using Elm.
Locate the line in your sendmail.cf that starts with the Mlocal
keyword and modify it as indicated in the sample line below:
Mlocal, P=x:/tcpip/bin/rcvmail.exe, F=lsDFMP, S=10, R=20, A=-u x:/tcpip/mail $u
The $u symbol causes sendmail to pass the user name the mail is for as
the argument to rcvmail.exe.
The MailDir= setting tells Elm where it should maintain the Unix-style
mailbox file where it transfers incoming mail to. I would suggest
using x:\tcpip\mail (you have to create that directory manually, of
course). And if you set the MailBox= setting to, for example, higgins,
then your mailbox file will be x:\tcpip\mail\higgins. Any mail coming
in for a user called higgins will be delivered by rcvmail.exe into
that same file.
The rcvmail.exe program will not accept mail for any arbitrary user,
only for known ones. To make users known to it, you need to create a
Unix style passwd file in the ConfDir= directory. See the sample
included passwd file to make yourself familiar with the format. Any
mail to a user name not defined in the passwd file is delivered into a
mailbox file with the name specified with PostMaster= in the .rc file.
Forward Files
-------------
If a "forward" file is found in the home directory of a user rcvmail
is trying to deliver mail for (the home directories are defined in the
passwd file), it is processed line by line. Each line can contain either
a local user name to which the mail is forwarded (and for whom in
turn rcvmail checks for a forward file), a remote e-mail address (with
a @ in it) to which the mail is forwarded, a \ followed by a local mailbox
file name (i.e. a user name without further checking and forward
expansion) or a | followed by a system command into which the mail
message is piped on standard input.
If all lines of a forward file failed to be processed properly, the
mail is delivered to the owning user despite the presence of the forward
file. If there is at least one successfull delivery during the processing
of a forward file, the owning user does not get a copy of the message in
his/her mailbox file.
Sent/Delivered Mail Log Files
-----------------------------
In the directory configured with the SpoolDir= line in the .rc file,
both sndmail and rcvmail maintain log files with timestamped entries
for each sent and received message. This way, you can always verify
if a message was sent successfully, for example, even if you use
the "detached" mode for senmail (Options=background).
Sendmail Configuration File
---------------------------
By the way, a sample sendmail.cf for OS/2 file is included with this
version of Elm. It is well commented and was written by Niel Kempson.
Better use that as the starting point to create your own one than
the sendmail.cf file include with OS/2's TCP/IP package because IBM's
is not nearly as good commented and figuring out how to configure
sendmail can become difficult.
Mail Filtering
--------------
Both the sndmail and rcvmail programs allow filtering of messages.
Before further processing, both programs pass the messages through
"sndfilt" and "rcvfilt" programs, respectively, if they exist.
These can, for example. be programs written in REXX. Included in
this package are two samples that I use to convert to/from MIME
encoding of messages with 8-bit characters as "quoted printable".