On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Woodhouse, Gregory J. wrote:
I'm afraid I can't agree here. Whether procmail is used directly as an
MDA or invoked through a users .forward, it is still invoke directly
via sendmail. To me, this differs from MUAs which I think of as true
clients (either sending mail via SMTP or receiving mail via POP or
IMAP). The difference is that these types of clients may *call* the
server (through a protocol), but are never *called*. On the other
hand, procmail is invoked (indirectly) by sendmail, so it belongs in
another category.
You're confusing functionality with who runs things when. Procmail and
other processing and other forwarding software and functions can (and
should) operate independantly of the MTA, and they operate on the user's
behalf (even if the user didn't actually "run" them herself).
The fact is that you do sort of make a valid point in a backwards way, and
that point is that the MTA/MDA should *not* be running software on behalf of
the user.
And puh-lease stop saying "sendmail". That is only one example of an MTA
(say it with me: "em-tee-ay"). There are other MTAs that (properly IMHO)
_don't_ run user-supplied programs on behalf of the user.
-Andy
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