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Annotation of coherent/d/bin/mail/smail/docs/Read.Me, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1:                Read.Me - Updated 9/15/87
        !             2: 
        !             3: What smail does:
        !             4: 
        !             5:   smail is capable of handling UUCP syntax (bang paths, bang
        !             6:   domains, and at domains are supported) mail transportation
        !             7:   over UUCP/uux/rmail channels.  It will support machines that
        !             8:   only have UUCP connections, and machines with UUCP links to
        !             9:   the outside world plus a small number of local machines that
        !            10:   are reached via SMTP.  The domain intelligence is embedded
        !            11:   in the smail database (e.g. the pathalias output), not the
        !            12:   sendmail.cf file, so if you have a fancier domain structure
        !            13:   that involves SMTP or anything other than uux in the domain
        !            14:   structure, you'll want to modify the sendmail.cf file here or
        !            15:   merge pieces of the enclosed sendmail.cf into your own.
        !            16: 
        !            17:   smail runs under 4.2BSD and System V, as a back end to sendmail;
        !            18:   and under System V without sendmail.  It also replaces rmail, which
        !            19:   becomes a link to smail.  In a sendmail environment, smail depends on
        !            20:   sendmail to crack the headers, as smail just deals with the envelope.
        !            21:   smail makes your host capable of using the INTERNET definition in the
        !            22:   Usenet software.
        !            23: 
        !            24:   Features of smail include:
        !            25: 
        !            26:   (1) Using pathalias data to choose the best route to your destination.
        !            27:   (2) Handling of user@domain, domain!user, and host!user syntax.
        !            28:   (3) Generation of domain!user syntax to be forwarded by other systems.
        !            29:   (4) Logging of traffic through your machine, by sender, recipient, and
        !            30:       size of message, so you can, track use and detect abuse of your
        !            31:       machine.
        !            32:   (5) Mail being forwarded through your machine to another uux link is
        !            33:       passed from rmail directly to uux, so there's less overhead on
        !            34:       your machine (sendmail stays out of the loop.)
        !            35:   (6) Sendmail-like alias capability for hosts without sendmail.
        !            36:   (7) Generation of RFC822 required headers for locally generated mail.
        !            37:   (8) Robust delivery scheme that reroutes only if stated path is inaccessible.
        !            38:   (8) Mail that is undeliverable is returned to sender.
        !            39:   (9) Simplicity.
        !            40: 
        !            41: Prerequisites:
        !            42: 
        !            43:   A copy of a recent posting of pathalias.  (The one posted
        !            44:   by Peter Honeyman in January 1986 is recommended.)
        !            45: 
        !            46:   A current copy of the UUCP map, or at least a copy of the
        !            47:   appropriate part of it that you're interested in.
        !            48: 
        !            49:   A properly registered domain name for your organization, such
        !            50:   as ATT.COM.  (It is possible to run smail using a domain name
        !            51:   under .UUCP, but since this can't be officially registered,
        !            52:   it is appropriate only for testing.)
        !            53: 
        !            54:   You can get pathalias from the mod.sources Usenet archive
        !            55:   (contact [email protected] or uunet!sources-request)
        !            56: 
        !            57:   You can get a UUCP map each month from Usenet newsgroup mod.map.
        !            58:   The UUCP map is quite large (currently about 2MB) so please don't ask
        !            59:   to have a copy mailed to you - get a copy from a nearby Usenet site.
        !            60: 
        !            61:   You can get a domain name by joining the UUCP Zone.  There are
        !            62:   low membership dues for this, and a registration process that
        !            63:   will take 2-8 weeks.  This Read.Me file may be out of date by
        !            64:   the time you read it, so we ask you to contact us for current
        !            65:   dues rates and procedures.  Contact [email protected] or
        !            66:   cbosgd!stargate!uucp-query and ask for the UUCP Zone information
        !            67:   packet.  (If you already belong to a network such as CSNET, DDN,
        !            68:   or BITNET, your organization may already have a domain name.  If
        !            69:   you are also on UUCP, it is recommended that you also join the
        !            70:   UUCP Zone at the lower rate for organizations whose primary
        !            71:   affiliation is with another network.  See the file "Registry"
        !            72:   for more information.
        !            73: 
        !            74: Overall structure:
        !            75: 
        !            76:   smail is installed in /bin/smail with a link in /bin/rmail.  Uuxqt
        !            77:   calls rmail, which either forwards the message on to the next hop
        !            78:   directly or, on a sysetm with sendmail, calls sendmail.  sendmail
        !            79:   may decide the message should be delivered by UUCP, and invoke smail,
        !            80:   which will look up a route and invoke uux.  (Note that the choice
        !            81:   about when to invoke sendmail and when to process a message directly
        !            82:   can be configured in smail.)
        !            83: 
        !            84:   smail uses a database which is generated from pathalias.  You take the
        !            85:   current UUCP map, add some local information and topology data (to tell
        !            86:   it about the domain tree) and run pathalias.  The result is sorted and
        !            87:   installed in /usr/lib/uucp/paths.  There is no hashing done on this
        !            88:   file - when smail looks up a name it uses a binary search.
        !            89: 
        !            90: Configuration considerations:
        !            91: 
        !            92:   You'll note two configuration options in defs.h: HANDLE and ROUTING.
        !            93:   These control which sorts of addresses smail/rmail will handle, and
        !            94:   which type of routing they will do.  The HANDLE define only affects
        !            95:   rmail, since smail sets it implicitly.  In any case, we recommend
        !            96:   that you leave HANDLE alone, unless you are making major changes.
        !            97: 
        !            98:   ROUTING has three choices: JUSTDOMAIN, ALWAYS, and REROUTE.  rmail
        !            99:   will run as JUSTDOMAIN, the defs.h default.  This means rmail will
        !           100:   only apply routing if it sees "rmail user@domain", and will just call
        !           101:   uux if it sees "rmail host!user".  (If the uux fails, it will call
        !           102:   smail -r, which will apply ALWAYS routing to try to get the mail
        !           103:   there anyway.  If the ALWAYS routing fails, then REROUTE routing is
        !           104:   applied.  This has the advantage of being low overhead on your
        !           105:   system, not second guessing a route someone else asked for, and still
        !           106:   recovering nicely from the mistakes of another system.  Your host
        !           107:   becomes a "smart host" that can get mail anywhere.)
        !           108: 
        !           109:   Many people will note huge paths going through their machine.  These
        !           110:   paths are generated by replies to netnews messages, and tend to be 10
        !           111:   or 20 hops long - far longer than necessary.  If you are a bit aggressive,
        !           112:   you can change -r to -R, which will cause such failed mail to be rerouted,
        !           113:   thus, mail to a!b!c!d!e!f!g!user will look up a route to g, and send the
        !           114:   mail to route!g!user.  (If it can't find g, it will try f, then e, and
        !           115:   so on until it finds someone it recognizes.)  If you are REALLY aggressive,
        !           116:   you can change ROUTING to REROUTE in defs.h, to get the same effect for
        !           117:   ALL rmail being passed through your machine.  This may help cut phone
        !           118:   bills, but it has some disadvantages.  It can lengthen a path sometimes,
        !           119:   e.g. mail to tektronix!user might turn into ihnp4!tektronix!user if your
        !           120:   routing database says mail to tektronix goes through ihnp4.  It makes it
        !           121:   hard to route around a dead host, or to redirect traffic from a mailing
        !           122:   list to several different directions.  It may also make mail go a different
        !           123:   path than what your user thought it was, and it affects other hosts that
        !           124:   route mail through you if you set ROUTING to REROUTE in defs.h.  So only
        !           125:   do this if you know what you are doing, and are willing to live with the
        !           126:   disadvantages.
        !           127: 
        !           128: #
        !           129: #@(#)Read.Me   2.5 (smail) 9/15/87
        !           130: #

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