Richard Coleman <coleman(_at_)math(_dot_)gatech(_dot_)edu> writes:
mts.conf provides for 'localname' to override the hostname. Very handy
for masquerading.
I've just met a site whose their Openmail hub doesn't understand the
local Unix login names, so it is necessary to masquerade the username as
well.
I have done this by patching zotnet/mts/mts.c (diff below). I think the
environment variable name is probably inappropriate.
Although it is difficult to tell from the current documentation,
nmh already has a form of "username masquerading". Check the variable
"mmailid" in the "mh-tailor" man page.
Essentially, you change the GECOS field in your password file to
"Richard Coleman <foobar>"
It's nice that that's there, but I still feel strongly the environment
variable method should be added as well. There are many systems where users
can't change their name in the password file, and many organizations that
want all the GECOS fields in the file to appear in a certain way.
Also, other programs besides MH/nmh don't know about this special format, so
you'll end up getting strange output if the GECOS field is expected to be
just a name (or a name possibly followed by a comma and other text). In
fact, other email programs will probably sign your name as something like:
Dan Harkless <dharkless> <dharkless(_at_)unitech(_dot_)com>
which is clearly non-kosher and probably won't be accepted by sendmail.
The mmailid feature is okay if an entire network domain (sharing NIS
information) agrees to use it and if all of its users use MH/nmh exclusively
as their email program, but I think a method that an individual user can use
is also needed. The $SENDER environment variable seems like the perfect
solution to me.
--
Dan Harkless
dharkless(_at_)unitech(_dot_)com
Unitech Research, Inc.