MH-TAILOR(5)MH-TAILOR(5)NAME
mh-tailor, mts.conf - mail transport configuration for nmh message han‐
dler
DESCRIPTION
The file /usr/local/etc/nmh/mts.conf defines run-time options for those
nmh programs which interact (in some form) with the message transport
system. At present, these (user) programs are: ap, conflict, inc,
msgchk, msh, post, rcvdist, and rcvpack.
Each option should be given on a single line. Blank lines and lines
which begin with `#' are ignored. The options available along with
default values and a description of their meanings are listed below:
mts:
The mail transport method to use. The three acceptable options
are smtp (which is the default), sendmail/smtp, and sendmail/pipe.
If you use smtp, this will enable a direct SMTP (simple mail
transport protocol) interface in nmh. When sending mail, instead
of passing the message to the mail transport agent, post will open
a socket connection to the mail port on the machine specified in
the servers entry.
If you use sendmail/smtp, then post will send messages by forking
a local copy of sendmail. It will still speak SMTP with this
local copy of sendmail. For backward compatibility, sendmail/smtp
can be abbreviated to sendmail.
The third alternative, sendmail/pipe, also forks a local copy of
sendmail but feeds the message directly to it, using sendmail -t.
This replaces the old, undocumented spost mechanism and retains
some of its limitations, such as lack of support for the -whom
switch and “Dcc:” header field.
localname:
The hostname nmh considers local. It should typically be a fully
qualified hostname. If this is not set, depending on the version
of UNIX you're running, nmh will query the system for this value
(e.g. uname, gethostname, etc.), and attempt to fully qualify this
value.
If you are using POP to retrieve new messages, you may want to set
this value to the name of the POP server, so that outgoing message
appear to have originated on the POP server.
localdomain:
If this is set, a `.' followed by this string will be appended to
your hostname.
This should only be needed, if for some reason nmh is not able to
fully qualify the hostname returned by the system (e.g. uname,
gethostname, etc.).
clientname:
This option specifies the host name that nmh will give in the SMTP
HELO (and EHLO) command, when posting mail. If not set, the
default is to use the host name that nmh considers local (see
localname above). If this option is set, but empty, no HELO com‐
mand will be given.
Although the HELO command is required by RFC 821, many SMTP
servers do not require it. Early versions of SendMail will fail
if the hostname given in the HELO command is the local host.
Later versions of SendMail will complain if you omit the HELO com‐
mand. If you run SendMail, find out what your system expects and
set this field if needed.
systemname:
This option is only used for UUCP mail. It specifies the name of
the local host in the UUCP “domain”. If not set, depending on the
version of UNIX you're running, nmh will query the system for this
value. This has no equivalent in the nmh configuration file.
mmdfldir: /var/mail
The directory where maildrops are kept. If this option is set,
but empty, the user's home directory is used. This overrides the
default value chosen at the time of compilation.
mmdflfil:
The name of the maildrop file in the directory where maildrops are
kept. If this is empty, the user's login name is used. This
overrides the default value (which is empty).
mmdelim1: \001\001\001\001\n
The beginning-of-message delimiter for maildrops.
mmdelim2: \001\001\001\001\n
The end-of-message delimiter for maildrops.
spoollocking: flock
The locking algorithm to use when opening the maildrop. Can be
any one of the following:
fcntl dot flock lockf
maildelivery: /usr/local/libexec/nmh/maildelivery
The name of the system-wide default maildelivery file. See slo‐
cal(1) for the details.
everyone: 200
The highest user-id which should NOT receive mail addressed to
“everyone”.
noshell:
If set, then each user-id greater than “everyone” that has a login
shell equivalent to the given value (e.g., “/bin/csh”) indicates
that mail for “everyone” should not be sent to them. This is use‐
ful for handling admin, dummy, and guest logins.
SMTP support
This option is only available if you set mts to smtp.
servers: localhost
A lists of hosts and networks which to look for SMTP servers when
posting non-local mail. It turns out this is a major win for
hosts which don't run an message transport system. The value of
servers should be one or more items. Each item is the name of a
host which is (hopefully) running a SMTP server.
SendMail
This option is only available if you set mts to sendmail.
sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
The pathname to the sendmail program.
Post Office Protocol
pophost:
The name of the default POP service host. If this is not set,
then nmh looks in the standard maildrop areas for waiting mail,
otherwise the named POP service host is consulted.
File Locking
A few words on locking: nmh has two main uses for locking: locking the
mail spool during mail incorporation, and locking metadata files
(sequence files, the context) during updates. These locking methods
can be configured separately from each other.
For locking the mail spool, the spoollocking entry in mh-tailor(5) will
control the locking algorithm to use when inc incorporates mail from
the spool file. If no entry is given, a default based on the operating
system type will be chosen.
For locking all other files, the datalocking entry in mh-profile(5)
controls the locking algorithm used for all other file access. If no
entry is given, the fcntl lock method will be chosen.
If you do not wish to use kernel-based locking, dot locking is an
option available. If “--enable-lockdir=directory” is not specified at
build time, lock files will be created in the directory where the file
being locked resides. Otherwise, lock files will be created in the
directory specified by “--enable-lockdir”.
Prior to installing nmh, you should see how locking is done at your
site, and set the appropriate values.
FILES
/usr/local/etc/nmh/mts.conf nmh mts configuration file
PROFILE COMPONENTS
None
SEE ALSOmh-mts(8), post(8)DEFAULTS
As listed above. The path of the mail transport configuration file can
be changed with the MHMTSCONF environment variable and augmented with
the MHMTSUSERCONF environment variable, see mh-profile(5).
BUGS
Failure to open any mail transport configuration file is silently
ignored. Therefore, it's best to avoid dynamic creation of such a file
with the intent of use via the MHMTSCONF or MHMTSUSERCONF environment
variables. If such use is necessary, the ability to successfully open
the file should first be verified.
nmh-1.6 December 8, 2013 MH-TAILOR(5)
