Subject: Re: Run procmail not in .forward

From: Jason Haar <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 09:32:14 GMT

On Aug 17,  4:38pm, Stephen R. van den Berg wrote:
> Subject: Re: Run procmail not in .forward
> Stephen Saroff Minnesota Supercomputer Center <[email-masked]> wrote:
> >Are system operators have sendmail set up so that only vacation can run
> >in the .forward file.
>
> >Is there anyway of still ensuring that all mail goes through procmail?
>
> 1. Have you tried asking them to make an exception for procmail?
> 2. Other than that, the only solution would be the sample script
>    provided in the procmail man page.  Run it periodically (through cron)
>    and/or when you log in.
>-- End of excerpt from Stephen R. van den Berg

Yes indeed - if they are concerned about security, then ask them to read the
README file that comes with smrsh - it explicitly says that vacation and
procmail are examples of programs you _should_ allow to have access! :-)

For those who don't know what we're talking about, smrsh is a shell
replacement for sendmail which allows better control over what programs you
allow users to use in their .forward files. It disables all escape characters
and generally improves the security of your system.

Actually, if you use procmail as your local mailer (Mlocal), could you
disable Mprog altogther? (now THAT would be interesting...)

Cheers,

Jason
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| Basingstoke, Hampshire                                                  |
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---

From: Jason Haar <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 12:54:51 GMT

On Aug 18,  1:46pm, Roman Czyborra wrote:
> > Actually, if you use procmail as your local mailer (Mlocal), could
> > you disable Mprog altogther? (now THAT would be interesting...)
>
> I'd make procmail Mlocal, so that you can have a .procmailrc without a
> .forward, but I'd also leave the smrsh up, so the vacationers won't
> get mad at you.
>-- End of excerpt from Roman Czyborra

I never met a vacation program that worked as well as procmail does. I use
procmail when I go away - that way you can just bung the appropriate rules at
the bottom of your .procmailrc file (examples are given in the procmail
package) and away you go! I've actually set up a system-wide procmail file
which you can include via the INCLUDERC call.

It would be very easy to write a script to replace vacation completely - one
that appends such a call to .procmailrc would do the trick.

Cheers,

Jason