kre wrote:
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:14:02 +0000
From: Ralph Corderoy <ralph(_at_)inputplus(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk>
Message-ID:
<20120103131403(_dot_)20429329A1(_at_)orac(_dot_)inputplus(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk>
| So scan(1), etc., in a script should ignore ~/.mh_profile?
I suspect it is more that most of the MH commands make no
sense other than as the MUA's interface to the user, and so
the user's preferences always make sense (even when scan is
run in a script .. it is generally run for the benefit of the
user running the script).
On the other hand, sending mail can be done by a script
entirely for the script's own purposes (logging its uses for
the developer, or ...) and for that, the user's preferences as
to how mail should get sent might more reasonably want to be
ignored. This is the function that mst of us would invoke
using either "mail user" or some variation of sendmail
(including the sendmail front ends that postfix, etc, mostly
all provide for exactly this purpose), but being MH, the
ability to use just MH for this purpose makes sense, so post
is the "just send this as instructed" interface, and "send" is
the front end to post that interprets the user's profile.
I asked John Romine and here's what he had to say, which
agrees and provides an example that convinces me:
# My take on this is that post should not be called by
# users directly, and it doesn't read the .mh_profile
# (only front-end UI programs read the profile).
#
# For example, there can be contexts where post is called
# by a helper program (like 'mhmail') which may be run by
# a non-MH user. We don't want this to prompt the user
# to create an MH profile, etc.
#
# My suggestion would be to have send pass a (hidden)
# '-fileproc proc' option to post if needed. You could also
# use an environment variable (I think send/whatnow do
# this).
I think that's the way to go. My personal preference is
to use a command line option, not an environment variable.
I think that send and whatnow are the only programs that
interact with post and would need to pass a fileproc, and
they and rcvdist need to add mhlproc support. I'll look
into it tonight.
David
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