Re: [Nmh-workers] nmh "post" doesn't read profile, fileproc ignored

[David Levine]

kre wrote:

>     Date:        Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:14:02 +0000
>     From:        Ralph Corderoy <address@hidden>
>     Message-ID:  <address@hidden>
>
>   | 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