offline mail writing (was Re: Debtags for science)

[Thorsten Glaser <tg@mirbsd.de>]

Enrico Zini dixit:

>[damn!  I postponed this since I wrote it on a bus, but then I forgot to
>send it]

.oO(wouldn't have happened with BSD)

I use the following setup:
* /etc/mail/sendmail.cf is pretty straightforward, although I do use a
  smarthost:

  in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf:
  | DS[herc.mirbsd.org]

  in /etc/mail/access:
  | TLS_Srv:herc.mirbsd.org		VERIFY:112+CN:herc.mirbsd.org

  This ensures that TLS verification must pass before mail is sent using
  the relay… clashes a little with greylisting, but once IPv6 or VPN is
  set up (as greylisting is run by me on IPv4 only), it works.

* /etc/mail/sm-nonet.cf has
  - no smarthost
  - the following changes:
  | O HoldExpensive=True
  | O Timeout.queuereturn=30d
  | O Timeout.queuewarn=7d
  - the "expensive flag" added to every mailer:
    this diff for smtp, esmtp, smtp8, dsmtp, relay
  | -Msmtp,         P=[IPC], F=LmDFMuX67E, S=EnvFromSMTP/HdrFromSMTP, R=EnvToSMTP, E=\r\n, L=990,
  | +Msmtp,         P=[IPC], F=LmDFMuX67Ee, S=EnvFromSMTP/HdrFromSMTP, R=EnvToSMTP, E=\r\n, L=990,

* /etc/rc asks for network config (wlan, ethernet via dhcp, ethernet via
  static IP at home, no network) and calls sendmail accordingly:

  | if [[ $netselect_type = off ]]; then
  |         sendmail_flags="-L sm-mta -C/etc/mail/sm-nonet.cf -bd"
  |         ntpd_flags=NO
  | else
  |         sendmail_flags="-L sm-mta -bd -q30m"
  |         ntpd_flags=-s
  | fi

In the end, this means sendmail will just queue mails I send out while
not connected, and send them out later. I’m sure your mailer of choice
will also do that if configured properly ☺

So don’t postpone, just send.

bye,
//mirabilos
--
Sometimes they [people] care too much: pretty printers [and syntax highligh-
ting, d.A.] mechanically produce pretty output that accentuates irrelevant
detail in the program, which is as sensible as putting all the prepositions
in English text in bold font.	-- Rob Pike in "Notes on Programming in C"