From ab59862a486279eecba25c0804c8522c0b38b808 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dan Harkless Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 10:14:14 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Expanded the mention of the $SIGNATURE environment variable to talk about the three different ways to override "From:" header construction. Also added mh-tailor(5) to the "SEE ALSO" section. --- man/post.man | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/man/post.man b/man/post.man index 397901a..d5b9e4e 100644 --- a/man/post.man +++ b/man/post.man @@ -73,9 +73,37 @@ The `\-watch' switch indicates that the user would like to watch the transport system's handling of the message (e.g., local and \*(lqfast\*(rq delivery). -\fIPost\fR consults the environment variable \fB$SIGNATURE\fR to determine -the sender's personal name in constructing the \*(lqFrom:\*(rq line of -the message. +Under normal circumstances, \fIpost\fR constructs the "From:" line of the +message from the user's UNIX username, the full name from the GECOS field of the +passwd file, and the fully-qualified name of the local machine (e.g. `From: "Dan +Harkless" '). However, there are three ways to +override these values. Note that they apply equally to "Resent-From:" lines in +messages sent with \fIdist\fR. + +The first way is GECOS-based username masquerading. If "mmailid" in the +mts.conf file has been set to non-zero, this processing is activated. If a +user's GECOS field in the passwd file is of the form "Full Name " then +"fakename" will be used in place of the real username. For instance, a GECOS +field of "Dan Harkless " would result in `From: "Dan Harkless" +'. Naturally if you were doing something like +this you'd want to set up an MTA alias (e.g. in /etc/aliases) from, for +instance, "Dan.Harkless" to "dan". + +The second way to override default construction of "From:" is to set the +\fB$SIGNATURE\fR environment variable. This variable overrides the full name +from the GECOS field, even if GECOS-based masquerading is being done. + +The third way, which will override either of the previous two, is to specify a +"From:" line manually in the message draft. It will be used as provided (after +alias substitution), but to discourage email forgery, the user's real address +will be used in the SMTP envelope "From:" and in the "Sender:" line. However, +if the system administrator has allowed address masquerading by setting +"mmailid" to non-zero in mts.conf, the SMTP envelope "From:" will use the +address given in the draft "From:", and there will be no "Sender:" header. This +is useful in pretending to send mail "directly" from a remote POP3 account, or +when remote email robots give improper precedence to the envelope "From:". Note +that your MTA may still reveal your real identity (e.g. sendmail's +"X-Authentication-Warning:" header). .Fi ^%etcdir%/mts.conf~^nmh mts configuration file @@ -87,7 +115,7 @@ the message. .Sa \fIStandard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages\fR (RFC\-822), .br -mhmail(1), send(1), mh\-mail(5), mh\-alias(5) +mhmail(1), send(1), mh\-mail(5), mh\-alias(5), mh\-tailor(5) .De `\-alias %etcdir%/MailAliases' .Ds -- 1.7.10.4