1POST(8) [nmh-1.3] POST(8)
2
6 post - deliver a message
7
9 /usr/libexec/nmh/post [-alias aliasfile] [-filter filterfile] [-nofil‐
10 ter] [-format | -noformat] [-mime | -nomime] [-msgid | -nomsgid]
11 [-verbose | -noverbose] [-watch | -nowatch] [-width columns]
12 [-sasl] [-saslmech mechanism] [-user username] file [-version]
13 [-help]
14
16 Post is the default program called by send to deliver the message in
17 file to local and remote users. In fact, most of the features attrib‐
18 uted to send in its manual page are performed by post, with send acting
19 as a relatively simple preprocessor. Thus, it is post which parses the
20 various header fields, appends “From:” and “Date:” lines, and interacts
21 with the mail transport system. Post will not normally be called
22 directly by the user.
23 Post searches the “To:”, “cc:”, “Bcc:”, “Fcc:”, and “Resent-xxx:”
25 header lines of the specified message for destination addresses, checks
26 these addresses for validity, and formats them so as to conform to
27 ARPAnet Internet Message Format protocol, unless the -noformat flag is
28 set. This will normally cause “@local-site” to be appended to each
29 local destination address, as well as any local return addresses. The
30 -width columns switch can be used to indicate the preferred length of
31 the header components that contain addresses.
32 If a “Bcc:” field is encountered, its addresses will be used for deliv‐
34 ery, and the “Bcc:” field will be removed from the message sent to
35 sighted recipients. The blind recipients will receive an entirely new
36 message with a minimal set of headers. Included in the body of the
37 message will be a copy of the message sent to the sighted recipients.
38 If -filter filterfile is specified, then this copy is filtered (re-for‐
39 matted) by mhl prior to being sent to the blind recipients. Alter‐
40 nately, if the -mime switch is given, then post will use the MIME rules
41 for encapsulation.
42 The -alias aliasfile switch can be used to specify a file that post
44 should take aliases from. More than one file can be specified, each
45 being preceded with -alias. In any event, the primary alias file is
46 read first.
47 The -msgid switch indicates that a “Message-ID:” or “Resent-Mes‐
49 sage-ID:” field should be added to the header.
50 The -verbose switch indicates that the user should be informed of each
52 step of the posting/filing process.
53 The -watch switch indicates that the user would like to watch the
55 transport system's handling of the message (e.g., local and “fast”
56 delivery).
57 Under normal circumstances, post constructs the “From:” line of the
59 message from the user's login name, the full name from the GECOS field
60 of the passwd file, and the fully-qualified name of the local machine
61 (or the value of “localname” in mts.conf, if set). An example is
62 “From: Dan Harkless <dan@machine.company.com>”. There are four ways to
63 override these values, however. Note that they apply equally to
64 “Resent-From:” lines in messages sent with dist.
65 The first way is GECOS-based username masquerading. If the “masquer‐
67 ade:” line in mts.conf contains “mmailid”, this processing is acti‐
68 vated. If a user's GECOS field in the passwd file is of the form “Full
69 Name <fakename>” then “fakename” will be used in place of the real
70 username. For instance, a GECOS field of “Dan Harkless <Dan.Harkless>”
71 would result in “From: Dan Harkless <Dan.Harkless@machine.com‐
72 pany.com>”. Naturally if you were doing something like this you'd want
73 to set up an MTA alias (e.g. in /etc/aliases) from, for instance,
74 “Dan.Harkless” to “dan”.
75 The second way to override default construction of “From:” is to set
77 the $SIGNATURE environment variable. This variable overrides the full
78 name from the GECOS field, even if GECOS-based masquerading is being
79 done. This processing is always active, and does not need to be
80 enabled from mts.conf.
81 The third way is controlled by the “user_extension” value of “masquer‐
83 ade:” line of mts.conf. When that's turned on, setting the $USER‐
84 NAME_EXTENSION environment variable will result in its value being
85 appended the user's login name. For instance, if I set $USER‐
86 NAME_EXTENSION to “+www”, my “From:” line will contain “Dan Harkless
87 <dan+www@machine.company.com>” (or “Dan.Harkless+www” if I'm using
88 mmailid masquerading as well). Recent versions of sendmail automati‐
89 cally deliver all mail sent to user+string to user. qmail has a simi‐
90 lar feature which uses '-' as the delimiter by default, but can use
91 other characters as well.
92 The fourth method of address masquerading is to specify a “From:” line
94 manually in the message draft. It will be used as provided (after
95 alias substitution), but normally, to discourage email forgery, the
96 user's real address will be used in the SMTP envelope “From:” and in a
97 “Sender:” header. However, if the “masquerade:” line of mts.conf con‐
98 tains “draft_from”, the SMTP envelope “From:” will use the address
99 given in the draft “From:”, and there will be no “Sender:” header.
100 This is useful in pretending to send mail “directly” from a remote POP3
101 account, or when remote email robots give improper precedence to the
102 envelope “From:”. Note that your MTA may still reveal your real iden‐
103 tity (e.g. sendmail's “X-Authentication-Warning:” header).
104 If nmh has been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl switch will
106 enable the use of SASL authentication with the SMTP MTA. Depending on
107 the SASL mechanism used, this may require an additional password prompt
108 from the user (but the “.netrc” file can be used to store this pass‐
109 word). -saslmech switch can be used to select a particular SASL mecha‐
110 nism, and the the -user switch can be used to select a authorization
111 userid to provide to SASL other than the default.
112 Currently SASL security layers are not supported for SMTP. nmh's SMTP
114 SASL code will always negotiate an unencrypted connection. This means
115 that while the SMTP authentication can be encrypted, the subsequent
116 data stream can not. This is in contrast to nmh's POP3 SASL support,
117 where encryption is supported for both the authentication and the data
118 stream.
119
122 /etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file
123 /etc/nmh/MailAliases global nmh alias file
124 /usr/bin/refile Program to process Fcc:s
125 /usr/libexec/nmh/mhl Program to process Bcc:s
126
129 post does NOT consult the user's .mh_profile
130
133 mhmail(1), send(1), mh-mail(5), mh-alias(5), mh-tailor(5), Standard for
134 the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC-822)
135
138 `-alias' defaults to /etc/nmh/MailAliases
139 `-format'
140 `-nomime'
141 `-nomsgid'
142 `-noverbose'
143 `-nowatch'
144 `-width 72'
145 `-nofilter'
146
149 None
150
153 “Reply-To:” fields are allowed to have groups in them according to the
154 822 specification, but post won't let you use them.
155MH.6.8 1 June 2008 POST(8)