1POST(8) System Manager's Manual POST(8)
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6 post - deliver an nmh message
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9 /usr/libexec/nmh/post [-help] [-version] [-alias aliasfile] [-filter
10 filterfile] [-nofilter] [-format | -noformat] [-mime | -nomime]
11 [-msgid | -nomsgid] [-messageid localname | random] [-verbose |
12 -noverbose] [-watch | -nowatch] [-width columns] [-mts smtp |
13 sendmail/smtp | sendmail/pipe] [-sendmail program] [-server
14 servername] [-port portname/number] [-sasl] [-nosasl] [-saslmech
15 mechanism] [-user username] [-tls] [-initialtls] [-notls] [-snoop]
16 file
17
19 post is the default program called by send to deliver the message in
20 file to local and remote users. In fact, most of the features attrib‐
21 uted to send in its manual page are performed by post, with send acting
22 as a relatively simple preprocessor. Thus, it is post which parses the
23 various header fields, appends a “Date:” line, and interacts with the
24 mail transport system. post will not normally be called directly by
25 the user, but can be replaced by the user with a postproc profile com‐
26 ponent that will have file as its final argument. See mh-profile(5)
27 for more information on postproc.
28 post searches the “To:”, “cc:”, “Bcc:”, “Fcc:”, and “Resent-xxx:”
30 header lines of the specified message for destination addresses, checks
31 these addresses for validity, and formats them so as to conform to
32 ARPAnet Internet Message Format protocol, unless the -noformat flag is
33 set. This will normally cause “@local-site” to be appended to each lo‐
34 cal destination address, as well as any local return addresses. The
35 -width columns switch can be used to indicate the preferred length of
36 the header components that contain addresses.
37 If a “Bcc:” field is encountered, its addresses will be used for deliv‐
39 ery, and the “Bcc:” field will be removed from the message sent to
40 sighted recipients. The blind recipients will receive an entirely new
41 message with a minimal set of headers. The body of this new message
42 will contain a copy of the message sent to the sighted recipients, ei‐
43 ther marked up with the indicator text "Blind-Carbon-Copy" or encapsu‐
44 lated as a MIME digest.
45 If -filter filterfile is specified, then this copy is filtered (re-for‐
47 matted) by mhl prior to being sent to the blind recipients. Alter‐
48 nately, if the -mime switch is given, then post will use the MIME rules
49 for encapsulation.
50 If a “Dcc:” field is encountered and the sendmail/pipe mail transport
52 method is not in use, its addresses will be used for delivery, and the
53 “Dcc:” field will be removed from the message. The blind recipients
54 will receive exactly the same message as the sighted recipients. *WARN‐
55 ING* Recipients listed in the “Dcc:” field receive no explicit indica‐
56 tion that they have received a “blind copy”. This can cause blind re‐
57 cipients to inadvertently reply to all of the sighted recipients of the
58 original message, revealing that they received a blind copy. On the
59 other hand, since a normal reply to a message sent via a “Bcc:” field
60 will generate a reply only to the sender of the original message, it
61 takes extra effort in most mailers to reply to the included message,
62 and so would usually only be done deliberately, rather than by acci‐
63 dent.
64 post rejects any message that contains a “Dcc:” field if the send‐
66 mail/pipe mail transport method is used.
67 The -alias aliasfile switch can be used to specify a file that post
69 should read aliases from. More than one file can be specified, with
70 each being preceded by -alias. In any event, the primary alias file is
71 read first.
72 The -msgid switch indicates that a “Message-ID:” or “Resent-Mes‐
74 sage-ID:” field should be added to the header.
75 The -messageid switch selects the style used for the part appearing af‐
77 ter the @ in “Message-ID:”, “Resent-Message-ID:”, and “Content-ID:”
78 header fields. The two acceptable options are localname (which is the
79 default), and random. With localname, the local hostname is used.
80 With random, a random sequence of characters is used instead. Note
81 that the -msgid switch must be enabled for this switch to have any ef‐
82 fect.
83 The -verbose switch indicates that the user should be informed of each
85 step of the posting/filing process.
86 The -watch switch indicates that the user would like to watch the
88 transport system's handling of the message (e.g., local and “fast” de‐
89 livery).
90 Under normal circumstances, post uses the “From:” line in the message
92 draft as the identity of the originating mailbox. A “From:” line is
93 required in all message drafts. By default the message composition
94 utilities such as comp, repl and mhmail will automatically place a
95 “From:” line in the message draft. There are two ways to override this
96 behavior, however. Note that they apply equally to “Resent-From:”
97 lines in messages sent with dist.
98 The first way is to supply a “Sender:” line. The value of this field
100 will be used as the originating mailbox identity when submitting the
101 message to the mail transport system. If multiple addresses are given
102 in the “From:” line, a “Sender:” line is required. If an “Envelope-
103 From:” line is supplied when multiple addresses are given in the
104 “From:” line, a “Sender:” header will be generated using the value of
105 the “Envelope-From:” line, if the “Envelope-From:” line is not blank.
106 The second way is to supply a “Envelope-From:” line. The value of this
108 field will be used as the originating mailbox identity when submitting
109 the message to the mail transport system. This will override both the
110 value of the “From:” line and a “Sender:” line (if one is supplied).
111 The “Envelope-From:” line is allowed to have a blank value; if the
112 value is blank, then the mail transport system will be instructed to
113 not send any bounces in response to the message. Not all mail trans‐
114 port systems support this feature.
115 The mail transport system default is defined in /etc/nmh/mts.conf but
117 can be overridden here with the -mts switch.
118 If nmh is using sendmail/pipe or sendmail/smtp as its mail transport
120 system, the -sendmail switch can be used to override the default send‐
121 mail program.
122 If nmh is using the SMTP MTA, the -server and -port switches can be
124 used to override the default mail server and port. The default server
125 is set with servers in /etc/nmh/mts.conf, and the default port is sub‐
126 mission, 587.
127 If nmh has been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl and -nosasl
129 switches will enable and disable the use of SASL authentication with
130 the SMTP MTA. Depending on the SASL mechanism used, this may require
131 an additional password prompt from the user (but the netrc file can be
132 used to store this password, as described in mh-profile(5). The
133 -saslmech switch can be used to select a particular SASL mechanism, and
134 the -user switch can be used to select an authorization userid to pro‐
135 vide to SASL, other than the default. The credentials profile entry in
136 mh-profile(5) describes the ways to supply a username and password.
137 If SASL authentication is successful, nmh will attempt to negotiate a
139 security layer for session encryption. Encrypted data is labelled with
140 `(sasl-encrypted)' and `(sasl-decrypted)' when viewing the SMTP trans‐
141 action with the -snoop switch. Base64-encoded data is wrapped with
142 `b64<>'. (Beware that the SMTP transaction may contain authentication
143 information either in plaintext or easily decoded base64.)
144 If nmh has been compiled with TLS support, the -tls and -initialtls
146 switches will require the negotiation of TLS when connecting to the
147 SMTP MTA. The -tls switch will negotiate TLS as part of the normal
148 SMTP protocol using the STARTTLS command. The -initialtls will negoti‐
149 ate TLS immediately after the connection has taken place, before any
150 SMTP commands are sent or received. Encrypted data is labelled with
151 `(tls-encrypted)' and `(tls-decrypted)' when viewing the SMTP transac‐
152 tion with the -snoop switch. Base64-encoded data is wrapped with
153 `b64<>'. (Beware that the SMTP transaction may contain authentication
154 information either in plaintext or easily decoded base64.) The -notls
155 switch will disable all attempts to negotiate TLS.
156 If port 465 is specified and none of the TLS switches were enabled,
158 -initialtls will be implied if TLS support was compiled in. Though
159 port 465 for SMTPS (SMTP over SSL) was deregistered by IANA in 1998, it
160 is still used for that service.
161 post filters out header lines with names beginning with “Nmh-” (case
163 insensitive) from the message draft. Those lines are reserved for in‐
164 ternal nmh use.
165
167 /etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file
168 /etc/nmh/MailAliases global nmh alias file
169 /usr/bin/refile Program to process Fcc:s
170 /usr/libexec/nmh/mhl Program to process Bcc:s
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173 post does not consult the user's .mh_profile
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176 mhmail(1), send(1), mh-mail(5), mh-alias(5), mh-profile(5), mh-tai‐
177 lor(5)
178 Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)
180
182 `-alias' defaults to /etc/nmh/MailAliases
183 `-format'
184 `-nomime'
185 `-nomsgid'
186 `-messageid localname'
187 `-noverbose'
188 `-nowatch'
189 `-width 72'
190 `-nofilter'
191
193 None
194
196 “Reply-To:” fields are allowed to have groups in them according to the
197 RFC 822 specification, but post won't let you use them.
198nmh-1.8 2016-10-17 POST(8)