RE: [courier-users] TO command not using SENDMAIL variable?

Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Bowie Bailey writes:
> > Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> > >
> > > maildrop is using SENDMAIL, however maildrop is also explicitly
> > > adding the -f "" flag also. Originally, this change was added to
> > > prevent maildrop from generating backscatter; but now that Courier
> > > has a real backscatter suppression filter, this is really no
> > > longer needed.
> > >
> > > However, you can replace "!<address>" with "| $SENDMAIL
> > > <address>", and get the same results.
> >
> > Things are starting to make sense now. That behavior should either
> > be removed (if it is not needed), or documented so it doesn't
> > confuse anyone else. Or possibly you could check to see if the
> > $SENDMAIL variable already set a -f flag and only do -f "" if the
> > flag is not already set.
> >
> > I did play around with the "| $SENDMAIL" construct and it works
> > fine. Unfortunately, that means I have to modify about 200
> > .mailfilter files as well as my program that maintains the
> > accounts. Can I modify the code to remove this behavior? If so,
> > where do I look?
>
> maildrop/deliver.C:
>
> cmdbuf=sendmail;
>
> cmdbuf += " -f '' ";
>
> Replace this with
>
> cmdbuf += " ";

Perfect. I'll give this a try.

> I'm still waffling as to the right solution for this. There are
> three basic options -- pass along the original $SENDER, as you're
> doing. I earlier believe that if that bounced, the backscatter will
> get eaten, but I was wrong. The forward message is really a new
> message that originates locally, whose contents happen to be the same
> as the original message, and its any bounce is not seen as
> backscatter. The second option is to set the return address to a
> null, thus all bounces get discarded -- the current behavior. The
> third option is to use the address doing the forwarding as the return
> address, but this may result in mail loops.

I'm not sure I understand why this would be considered backscatter.
This is what I see:

- Someone sends mail to one of my users
- I use maildrop to forward that mail to the user's preferred account
- Any bounces generated at any point in the chain need to go back to
the original sender so that he knows the message was not received.

> Mail forwarding has always been clumsy.

Agreed. And now, with SPF, it is even worse. Unfortunately, I don't
see the need for it going away anytime soon. My problem is that I
host web and mail services for our customers' domains. Quite a few of
them want me to forward mail from their domain accounts over to their
ISP account.

--
Bowie


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