1MH-TAILOR(5) [nmh-1.3] MH-TAILOR(5)
2
6 mh-tailor, mts.conf - mail transport customization for nmh message han‐
7 dler
8
10 /etc/nmh/mts.conf
11
13 The file /etc/nmh/mts.conf defines run-time options for those nmh pro‐
14 grams which interact (in some form) with the message transport system.
15 At present, these (user) programs are: ap, conflict, inc, msgchk, msh,
16 post, rcvdist, and rcvpack.
17 Each option should be given on a single line. Blank lines and lines
19 which begin with `#' are ignored. The options available along with
20 default values and a description of their meanings are listed below:
21 mts:
23 The mail transport method to use. The two acceptable options are
24 smtp (which is the default), and sendmail.
25 If you use smtp, this will enable a direct SMTP (simple mail
27 transport protocol) interface in nmh. When sending mail, instead
28 of passing the message to the mail transport agent, post will open
29 a socket connection to the mail port on the machine specified in
30 the servers entry.
31 If you use sendmail, then post will send messages by forking a
33 local copy of sendmail. Currently it will still speak SMTP with
34 this local copy of sendmail.
35 localname:
37 The hostname nmh considers local. It should typically be a fully
38 qualified hostname. If this is not set, depending on the version
39 of UNIX you're running, nmh will query the system for this value
40 (e.g. uname, gethostname, etc.), and attempt to fully qualify this
41 value.
42 If you are using POP to retrieve new messages, you may want to set
44 this value to the name of the POP server, so that outgoing message
45 appear to have originated on the POP server.
46 localdomain:
48 If this is set, a `.' followed by this string will be appended to
49 your hostname.
50 This should only be needed, if for some reason nmh is not able to
52 fully qualify the hostname returned by the system (e.g. uname,
53 gethostname, etc.).
54 clientname:
56 This option specifies the host name that nmh will give in the SMTP
57 HELO (and EHLO) command, when posting mail. If not set, the
58 default is to use the host name that nmh considers local (see
59 localname above). If this option is set, but empty, no HELO com‐
60 mand will be given.
61 Although the /B HELO command is required by RFC-821, many SMTP
63 servers do not require it. Early versions of SendMail will fail
64 if the hostname given in the HELO command is the local host.
65 Later versions of SendMail will complain if you omit the HELO com‐
66 mand. If you run SendMail, find out what your system expects and
67 set this field if needed.
68 systemname:
70 This option is only used for UUCP mail. It specifies the name of
71 the local host in the UUCP “domain”. If not set, depending on the
72 version of UNIX you're running, nmh will query the system for this
73 value. This has no equivalent in the nmh configuration file.
74 mmdfldir: /var/mail
76 The directory where maildrops are kept. If this option is set,
77 but empty, the user's home directory is used. This overrides the
78 default value chosen at the time of compilation.
79 mmdflfil:
81 The name of the maildrop file in the directory where maildrops are
82 kept. If this is empty, the user's login name is used. This
83 overrides the default value (which is empty).
84 mmdelim1: \001\001\001\001\n
86 The beginning-of-message delimiter for maildrops.
87 mmdelim2: \001\001\001\001\n
89 The end-of-message delimiter for maildrops.
90 masquerade:
92 This directive controls three different types of email address
93 masquerading. The three possible values, which may be specified
94 in any combination on the line, separated by spaces, are
95 “draft_from”, “mmailid”, and “username_extension”.
96 “mmailid” was the only type of masquerading in the original MH
98 package, and apparently stands for “masquerade mail identifica‐
99 tion”. This type of masquerading keys off of the GECOS field of
100 the passwd file. When enabled, nmh will check if the user's
101 pw_gecos field in the passwd file is of the form:
102 Full Name <fakeusername>
104 If it is, the internal nmh routines that find the username and
106 full name of that user will return “fakeusername” and “Full Name”
107 respectively. This is useful if you want the messages you send to
108 always appear to come from the name of an MTA alias rather than
109 your actual account name. For instance, many organizations set up
110 “First.Last” sendmail aliases for all users. If this is the case,
111 the GECOS field for each user should look like:
112 First [Middle] Last <First.Last>
114 “username_extension”, when specified on the “masquerade:” line,
116 allows a second type of username masquerading. If the user sets
117 the $USERNAME_EXTENSION environment variable, its value will be
118 appended to the actual login name. For instance, if I am
119 “dan@company.com”, and I set $USERNAME_EXTENSION to “-www”, my
120 mail will appear to come from “dan-www@company.com”. This is
121 meant to interact with qmail's “user-extension” feature, where
122 mail sent to user-string will be delivered to user. Likewise,
123 those using versions of sendmail for which “plussed user” process‐
124 ing is active can set $USERNAME_EXTENSION to “+string”. These MTA
125 features are useful because they allow one to use different email
126 addresses in different situations (to aid in automatic mail fil‐
127 tering or in determining where spammers got one's address) while
128 only actually having a single account. Note that $USERNAME_EXTEN‐
129 SION is only appended to the username when post is generating
130 “[Resent-]From:” lines and the SMTP envelope “From:”. inc, for
131 instance, will not try to read from a maildrop file called
132 “dan-www” (to recall the earlier example).
133 “draft_from” controls the most powerful type of address masquerad‐
135 ing. Normally, when a user explicitly specifies a “From:” header
136 in a draft, nmh uses it rather than constructing its own. How‐
137 ever, to discourage email forgery, the SMTP envelope “From:” and a
138 “Sender:” header are set to the user's real address. When
139 “draft_from” is turned on, though, the envelope “From:” will use
140 the address specified in the draft, and there will be no “Sender:”
141 header. This is useful when a user wants to pretend to be sending
142 mail “directly” from a remote POP3 account, or when remote mail
143 robots incorrectly use the envelope “From:” in preference to the
144 body “From:” (or refuse to take action when the two don't match).
145 Note that the MTA may still reveal the user's real identity (e.g.
146 sendmail's “X-Authentication-Warning:” header).
147 maildelivery: /usr/libexec/nmh/maildelivery
149 The name of the system-wide default maildelivery file. See slo‐
150 cal(1) for the details.
151 everyone: 200
153 The highest user-id which should NOT receive mail addressed to
154 “everyone”.
155 noshell:
157 If set, then each user-id greater than “everyone” that has a login
158 shell equivalent to the given value (e.g., “/bin/csh”) indicates
159 that mail for “everyone” should not be sent to them. This is use‐
160 ful for handling admin, dummy, and guest logins.
161 SMTP support
163 These options are only available if you set mts to smtp.
164 hostable: /etc/nmh/hosts
166 The exceptions file for /etc/hosts used by post to try to find
167 official names. The format of this file is quite simple:
168 1. Comments are surrounded by sharp (`#') and newline.
170 2. Words are surrounded by white space.
172 3. The first word on the line is the official name of a host.
174 4. All words following the official names are aliases for that
176 host.
177 servers: localhost \01localnet
179 A lists of hosts and networks which to look for SMTP servers when
180 posting local mail. It turns out this is a major win for hosts
181 which don't run an message transport system. The value of servers
182 should be one or more items. Each item is the name of either a
183 host or a net (in the latter case, precede the name of the net by
184 a \01). This list is searched when looking for a smtp server to
185 post mail. If a host is present, the SMTP port on that host is
186 tried. If a net is present, the SMTP port on each host in that
187 net is tried. Note that if you are running with the BIND code,
188 then any networks specified are ignored (sorry, the interface went
189 away under BIND).
190 SendMail
192 This option is only available if you set mts to sendmail.
193 sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail
195 The pathname to the sendmail program.
196 Post Office Protocol
198 This option is only available if you have compiled nmh with POP support
199 enabled (i.e., “--enable-pop”).
200 pophost:
202 The name of the default POP service host. If this is not set,
203 then nmh looks in the standard maildrop areas for waiting mail,
204 otherwise the named POP service host is consulted.
205 File Locking
253 A few words on locking: nmh has several methods for creating locks on
254 files. When configuring nmh, you will need to decide on the locking
255 style and locking directory (if any). The first controls the method of
256 locking, the second says where lock files should be created.
257 To configure nmh for kernel locking, use the “--with-locking=flock”
259 configure option if you want to use the flock system call; use “--with-
260 locking=lockf” if you want to use the lockf system call; or use
261 “--with-locking=fcntl” if you want to use the fcntl system call for
262 kernel-level locking.
263 Instead of kernel locking, you can configure nmh to use dot locking by
265 using “--with-locking=dot”. Dot locking specifies that a file should
266 be created whose existence means “locked” and whose non-existence means
267 “unlocked”. The name of this file is constructed by appending “.lock”
268 to the name of the file being locked. If LOCKDIR is not specified,
269 lock files will be created in the directory where the file being locked
270 resides. Otherwise, lock files will be created in the directory speci‐
271 fied by LOCKDIR.
272 Prior to installing nmh, you should see how locking is done at your
274 site, and set the appropriate values.
275
278 /etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file
279
282 None
283
286 mh-mts(8), post(8)
287
290 As listed above
291MH.6.8 1 June 2008 MH-TAILOR(5)