Bug#90287: PROPOSAL] require the use of $MAIL
>>"Arthur" == Arthur Korn <arthur@korn.ch> writes:
Arthur> In the discussion about changing our default mailbox location
Arthur> it became clear that there are some packages that don't use
Arthur> $MAIL at all. This is seriously broken behaviour, and can
Arthur> make it very hard to use alternative mailbox setups.
Please clarify the following: whose $MAIL should the MTA
honor? I have several users on my machine, and if they all have
different $MAIL settings, where should sendmail dump the mail in? How
does sendmail know the $MAIL settings for everyone?
Arthur> Reading up about this in the policy, I noticed that it states
Arthur> in section 12.6, paragraph 2:
>> The mail spool is /var/spool/mail and the interface to send a mail message
>> is /usr/sbin/sendmail (as per the FHS). The mail spool is part of the base
>> system and not part of the MTA package.
Arthur> This sounds af it was allways /var/spool/mail, and
Arthur> considering $MAIL was not really necessery. I propose that
Arthur> this be changed to:
>> The mail spool is $MAIL with a fallback to /var/spool/mail. The
>> interface to send a mail message is /usr/sbin/sendmail (as per the
>> FHS). The mail spool is part of the base system and not part of
>> the MTA package.
Arthur> ciao, 2ri
I think this proposal is seriously flawed. It also fails the
directive that programs not require env variables to be set for
correct functioning.
Unless you clarify whose $MAIL setting the MTA must follow,
and come up with an explanation why that is a good thing, I shall
object to this proposal.
manoj
--
He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news. Bertolt Brecht
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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