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- Xref: sparky comp.mail.sendmail:2991 comp.mail.mh:1379
- Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail,comp.mail.mh
- Path: sparky!uunet!uaisun4!mrl
- From: mrl@uai.com (Mark R. Ludwig)
- Subject: Differences invoking sendmail or using socket (localhost,SMTP)
- Message-ID: <MRL.92Dec14095012@sun4.uai.com>
- Sender: mrl@uai.com (Mark R. Ludwig)
- Organization: Universal Analytics, Inc., Torrance (LA), CA
- Date: 14 Dec 92 09:50:12
- Lines: 32
-
- The MH administrator's documentation recommends configuring MH so it
- posts outgoing messages using a socket to a server which talks SMTP,
- as opposed to invoking sendmail in a subprocess and feeding it the
- message. In more than one place, the documentation makes a value
- judgement that using TCP to an SMTP server is superior to invoking the
- MTS directly.
-
- I am considering changing our mail environment to have a single mail
- hub, and installing Rich Salz's minimal sendmail configuration which
- just sends everything to the hub. I would not have a daemon running
- anywhere except on the hub (and would use cron to achieve periodic
- queue runs to handle the hub being busy, hung, or dead). Should I
- bother to have sendmail run as a daemon when the only processes
- connecting would be on the same host?
-
- I would like to understand the logic behind the conclusion in the MH
- documentation that using SMTP over TCP is superior, and perhaps hear
- from people who went against the recommendation and omitted "/smtp"
- from the "mts" line in their MH configuration. The documentation also
- makes a vague statement that using TCP to an SMTP server bypasses
- whatever authentication the MTS has. In the case of sendmail, I
- assume this means one could pretend to be someone else, but my
- understanding is that MH's post(8) would insert the "Sender:" field to
- make the message RFC-conforming. I'm not sure, then, to what
- authentication the documentation refers.
-
- I'd appreciate enlightenment from people who understand how MH and
- sendmail work best together.$$
- --
- INET: mrl@uai.com NIC: ML255 ICBM: USA; Lower Left Coast
- "A computer is one of life's joys; it follows simple rules. Just like
- children, adults need toys, only we like to call them 'tools.'" -- Dave Ross
-