On 2022-01-26, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou@hotmail.com> wrote:

> * Is there some other (preferred, simpler, or without crypto demands)
> interface or tool to send emails automatically from a shell script?

mailx on Slackware is s-nail and the following ~/.mailrc has worked
flawlessly for me (using gmail):

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/prepping-for-mailx-version-v15-from-14-9-17-a-4175671975/#post6104757

I see that Ubuntu has an s-nail package but it is not the default
command line mailer.

Andrew
--
You think that's air you're breathing now?

On Wed, 2022-01-26, William Unruh wrote:
> On 2022-01-26, Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> wrote:
>> On Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:20:04 +0100, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>> [*] I've heard that sendmail configuration is a nightmare.
>>
>> Sendmail configuration is indeed complex, mostly due to the
>> archaic form of it's configuration file, and the variety of options
>> available for mail handling.
>
> Many distributions now use postfix as the mail sender/receiver, not
> sendmail. It has a "sendmail" stub to make software think that it is
> sendmail that is being used. Check what you are using first.

I haven't checked this, but it's also possible that it was the other
way around: sendmail the utility for local mail delivery being older
than Sendmail the daemon.

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Oo o. . .
\X/ snipabacken.se> O o .

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 07:23:17 +0000, Jorgen Grahn wrote:

> On Wed, 2022-01-26, William Unruh wrote:
>> On 2022-01-26, Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> wrote:
>>> On Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:20:04 +0100, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>> [*] I've heard that sendmail configuration is a nightmare.
>>>
>>> Sendmail configuration is indeed complex, mostly due to the archaic
>>> form of it's configuration file, and the variety of options available
>>> for mail handling.
>>
>> Many distributions now use postfix as the mail sender/receiver, not
>> sendmail. It has a "sendmail" stub to make software think that it is
>> sendmail that is being used. Check what you are using first.
>
> I haven't checked this, but it's also possible that it was the other way
> around: sendmail the utility for local mail delivery being older than
> Sendmail the daemon.

Not really. (sendmail.org) sendmail (the daemon) routes with preformatted
email messages. You /can/ invoke the binary as a foreground process, and
that invocation will accept a preformatted email message for routing (and
promptly route it via the sendmail daemon).

From the sendmail(8) manpage:
Sendmail is not intended as a user interface routine; other programs
provide user-friendly front ends; sendmail is used only to deliver pre-
formatted messages.

With no flags, sendmail reads its standard input up to an end-of-file
or a line consisting only of a single dot and sends a copy of the mes-
sage found there to all of the addresses listed. It determines the
network(s) to use based on the syntax and contents of the addresses.

So, you see, it is possible to use sendmail as a (very crude) MUA, but,
like telnetting to port 25 and entering mail by hand, it is not a very
friendly way to initiate an email message.

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

On 2/15/22 12:23 AM, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
> I haven't checked this, but it's also possible that it was the other
> way around: sendmail the utility for local mail delivery being older
> than Sendmail the daemon.

Um....

I guess that's not outside of the realm of possibility. Though I think
it's unlikely for a couple of reasons. Sendmail is quite old, going
back to when there weren't very many choices. More importantly, why
would a utility that predates "Sendmail" have it's name?

My understanding is that Sendmail, the MTA that we either love or loath,
goes back to (at least) the early '90s, if not the '80s, and was a
re-write / port of send-mail, it's predecessor, on some platform that
might not have been Unix.

What am I misremembering?

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 12:32:58 -0700, Grant Taylor wrote:

> On 2/15/22 12:23 AM, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
>> I haven't checked this, but it's also possible that it was the other
>> way around: sendmail the utility for local mail delivery being older
>> than Sendmail the daemon.
>
> Um....
>
> I guess that's not outside of the realm of possibility. Though I think
> it's unlikely for a couple of reasons. Sendmail is quite old, going
> back to when there weren't very many choices. More importantly, why
> would a utility that predates "Sendmail" have it's name?
>
> My understanding is that Sendmail, the MTA that we either love or loath,
> goes back to (at least) the early '90s, if not the '80s, and was a
> re-write / port of send-mail, it's predecessor, on some platform that
> might not have been Unix.
>
> What am I misremembering?

From
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/sendmail-3rd-edition/1565928393/
pr03s03.html

"The sendmail program was originally written by Eric Allman while he
was a student and staff member at the University of California at
Berkeley.
...
A sudden increase in protocol types, coupled with the anticipation of
an explosion in the number of networks, motivated Eric Allman to write
delivermail — the precursor to sendmail. The delivermail program was
shipped in 1979 with 4.0 and 4.1 BSD Unix.
...
In 1980, ARPAnet began converting from Network Control Protocol (NCP)
to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). ... Responding to these and
other changes, Eric evolved delivermail into sendmail ...
...
The first sendmail program was shipped with 4.1c BSD (the first
version of Berkeley Unix to include TCP/IP). From that first release
to the present,[2] Eric has continued to enhance sendmail, first at UC
Berkeley, then at Britton Lee, then back at UC Berkeley, then with
InReference Inc., and now with Sendmail, Inc. The current major
version of sendmail is V8, a major rewrite that includes many bug
fixes and significant enhancements.
...
In 1992, Eric started creating a new version of sendmail to merge all
the earlier versions. V8 officially adopted most of the good features
from IDA, KJS, Sun, and HP’s sendmail, and kept abreast of the latest
standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In 1996,
Eric began work on V8.8 sendmail. This release continued the trend
begun with V8.7, adding many requested new features and options, and
tightening security. In 1998, V8.9 was released, continuing the
direction started by V8.8.
...
In 1999, Sendmail, Inc. was founded in Emeryville, California.
Sendmail, Inc. took over maintenance and development of the open source
version of sendmail, and began work on a commercial version.
...
"
and so on

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

On 2/15/22 12:50 PM, Lew Pitcher wrote:
> From
> https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/sendmail-3rd-edition/1565928393/
> pr03s03.html
....
> and so on

Most of that matches what I remember. Though I did have the precursor
name wrong. It was "delivermail".

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 20:22:28 -0500, Grant Taylor <gtaylor@tnetconsulting.net> wrote:

> On 2/15/22 12:50 PM, Lew Pitcher wrote:
>> From
>> https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/sendmail-3rd-edition/1565928393/
>> pr03s03.html
> ...
>> and so on
>
> Most of that matches what I remember. Though I did have the precursor
> name wrong. It was "delivermail".

According to wikipedia, unix had the command mail when it started in 71.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(Unix)

Regards, Dave Hodgins

On 2/15/22 6:57 PM, David W. Hodgins wrote:
> According to wikipedia, unix had the command mail when it started in 71.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(Unix)

My understanding of the mail command is that it qualifies as a Mail User
Agent (MUA), meant for composing outgoing email and reading incoming
email. On the other hand, a Mail Transport Agent (MTA), like
delivermail and sendmail, is meant for taking email, nominally from
MUAs, and routing it to where it needs to go, be it local delivery via a
Local Delivery Agent (LDA), or a remote MTA via some communications
protocol.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

On Wed, 16 Feb 2022 01:06:23 -0500, Grant Taylor <gtaylor@tnetconsulting.net> wrote:

> On 2/15/22 6:57 PM, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>> According to wikipedia, unix had the command mail when it started in 71.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(Unix)
>
> My understanding of the mail command is that it qualifies as a Mail User
> Agent (MUA), meant for composing outgoing email and reading incoming
> email. On the other hand, a Mail Transport Agent (MTA), like
> delivermail and sendmail, is meant for taking email, nominally from
> MUAs, and routing it to where it needs to go, be it local delivery via a
> Local Delivery Agent (LDA), or a remote MTA via some communications
> protocol.

Looks like in the original version, it only worked for sending mail between
users on the same system, so no transport involved.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

On 2/16/22 11:11 AM, David W. Hodgins wrote:
> Looks like in the original version, it only worked for sending mail
> between users on the same system, so no transport involved.

Interesting.

Thank you for correcting and clarifying. #TIL

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die