bugThe nmh Mail Handling System - Bugs: bug #29328, user control of mts.conf

 
 

bug #29328: user control of mts.conf

Submitted by:  cilantro <cilantro>
Submitted on:  Wed 24 Mar 2010 06:57:36 PM UTC  
 
Category: EnhancementSeverity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - NormalStatus: Fixed
Assigned to: NoneOpen/Closed: Closed

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Mon 06 Feb 2012 10:48:44 PM UTC, comment #4:

My mistake -- yes, this is exactly what I was looking for.
Time to upgrade to 1.4...

Thanks!

Cilantro

cilantro <cilantro>
Mon 06 Feb 2012 10:26:38 PM UTC, comment #3:

Perhaps my reply wasn't clear enough.

You can override the mail server (and port) with settings in your local .mh_profile, today. Example:

send: -server your.local.mail.server -port submission

I think that's what you want, right? We also support -host for inc to specify a POP server. I think that's the useful set of options.

Ken Hornstein <kenh>
Project Administrator
Mon 06 Feb 2012 09:01:57 PM UTC, comment #2:

Thanks for the response; better late than never.
Will try the -port switch; that's a definite improvement.

But supporting overrides in mts.conf is not the issue -- that requires root access. Some folks use MH as a mail client, yet unless they manage the machine themselves -- which is admittedly often the case -- they can not customize the outgoing mail server without rebuilding a private copy of MH. Shouldn't some of these overrides be under user control, e.g. through .mh_profile?

One situation that I believe occurs frequently is that of a temporary visitor being given an account on an institution shell server, for instance on a university campus, yet preferring to send outgoing mail via a different server. Yes, of course, a sysad might choose to lock down port 25, but I have often seen situations where almost any other mail client other than MH could do the job.

Again, this was a feature request, not a bug report.

Cilantro

cilantro <cilantro>
Mon 06 Feb 2012 05:40:43 PM UTC, comment #1:

Yes, I know this bug report is two years old. Turns out I wasn't getting email about these bug reports; my apologies.

To answer your requests:

I believe we support overrides of most things in mts.conf. Specifically, the servers line and the pophost line. Both can be specified on the send and inc lines (either on the command line or .mh_profile line). I'm hoping you don't actually use the hostable line :-) Are there others you were thinking of?

Also, for the 1.4 release we also support the -port switch to send which does exactly what you were asking for.

Ken Hornstein <kenh>
Project Administrator
Wed 24 Mar 2010 06:57:36 PM UTC, original submission:

Why can't users override options in /etc/nmh/nts.conf?

There's not much security here -- users can presumably compile a private copy of post which looks elsewhere. So why not allow users to configure these options themselves to begin with, thus making nmh more usable as a mail client.

Condider this a feature request, rather than a bug report.

Cilantro

PS: A related request: Please consider including an option to set the port to use with SMTP to allow custom configurations, e.g. involving SSH tunneling.

cilantro <cilantro>

 

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    Follow 3 latest changes.

    Date Changed By Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced By
    Mon 06 Feb 2012 11:42:37 PM UTCkenhStatusNeed Info=>Fixed
      Open/ClosedOpen=>Closed
    Mon 06 Feb 2012 05:40:43 PM UTCkenhStatusNone=>Need Info

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