Re: [Cvs-syncmail] Please enable the /usr/sbin/sendmail interface for sending out mail

[Joost v. B. <j.e...@uv...>]

Hi all,

Excuse me for joining the discussion only this late.

On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 05:56:24PM -0100, Klaus Johannes Rusch wrote:
> Joost van Baal wrote:
> > > I'd be nice if syncmail could supply a commandline option which would
> > > make it call /usr/sbin/sendmail instead of connecting to localhost on
> > > port 25 (which is what smtplib.SMTP() does, I believe).  On some
> > > (arguably misconfigured, perhaps) systems, this makes a difference.
> > > MUA's generally call /usr/sbin/sendmail to sent out mail.  Therefore,=
 I
> > > believe it'd be a sane thing for syncmail to do this too (or make it
> > > available.)
>=20
> The advantage of smtplib.SMTP is portability -- some platforms, most nota=
bly
> Windows, do not have a sendmail binary in the default path.

Yes, the reason to move from an /usr/sbin/sendmail interface to talking
SMTP quite often is portability: Microsoft Windows lacks a ``standard''
interface to send out mail.  However, using /usr/sbin/sendmail (if it's
available) has benefits: you can rely on the local mail queueing, to
deal with stuff like network outages.  Therefore, I feel it's a wise
thing to use this interface where available.  (Unix MUA's generally do
this, too.)

> The Perl version
> of cvs-syncmail at http://cvs-syncmail-pl.sf.net/, which is based on
> cvs-syncmail, has a configuration option for specifying a different SMTP
> server, so if you are relaying all messages through a smarthost at your I=
SP
> you can do
>=20
>     export SMTP_SERVER=3Dmyserver
>     cvs-syncmail ...

Yep, saw that.  Unfortunately, the Perl version lacks the
/usr/sbin/sendmail option too.  (And this project hasn't made an
official release yet.)

> > tried to write a patch, based on these old scripts, but failed.  I'm not
> > that fluent in python :(  )
>=20
> Retrofitting the change for allowing different smarthosts to the Python c=
ode
> should not be too difficult, if you prefer hacking Perl code you have a
> ready-to-use solution already (and changing the Net::SMTP call to an exte=
rnal
> sendmail call would be easy too if you still want to call sendmail instea=
d).

Hm, what was the reason to start reimplementing the same script in Perl?
(I couldn't find any rationale.) Would it be useful if I'd write a patch
for the Perl script?

Bye,

Joost

--=20
Joost van Baal                                http://banach.uvt.nl/
                                                 Tilburg University
j.e...@uv...                                  The Netherlands