On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Alicia da Conceicao wrote:

> I don't recall using any e-mail, just "send-pr", and it reported
> "send-pr: problem report sent".  Unfortunately no confirmation
> e-mail was sent.
>
> I don't have (nor do I want) sendmail or any other SMTP server
> configured on my laptop.  My laptop only uses Mozilla for e-mail,
> and for outgoing e-mail it forwards it to a remote SMTP (sendmail)
> server.
>
> The laptop is on the Internet, behind firewalls, so if "send-pr"
> makes its own direc SMTP connection netbsd.org, it should work.
> However, if "send-pr" try to use a local SMTP mailer, then it won't
> be received

"send-pr" doesn't know anything about SMTP. It submits messages
using "sendmail -oi -t". "Most" unix programs that send mail do
the same thing.

> So it looks like "send-pr" does try to use sendmail on my laptop,
> which *IS NOT A LAPTOP NOT A SERVER, NOR DO I WANT IT TO BE A SMTP
> SERVER*.  So these 2 "send-pr" messages, and a previous one I sent
> a couple of days ago are lost, and unfortunately, I have to retype
> them again from scratch.

Actually, they're not lost. They're probably sitting in
"/var/spool/clientmqueue", also visible via "sendmail -Ac -q".

For security reasons, sendmail, when started as a submission agent
(with "-oi"), forgets that it knows how to be a daemon, and trys to
hand the message to the configured SMTP listener (localhost by
default, so it might be the same binary started as a daemon, or
might be "postfix", or might be something else, or it might even be
a different host).

> Is there an alternative to "send-pr" for laptops, desktops, and
> embedded systems?  Maybe someone can put up a webpage form at
> "www.netbsd.org" to submit GNATS bugs?

There is a form on the web page to submit bugs.

Since you filled them out with "send-pr" already, the easiest way to
get those PR's out would be to hold your nose, and type, as root,

    /etc/rc.d/sendmail forcestart
    /etc/rc.d/smmsp forcestart

Now

    mailq -Ac; mailq

until empty, then

    /etc/rc.d/sendmail forcestop
    /etc/rc.d/smmsp forcestop

By the way, this is a known problem ("sore point", even). "mail
foo@bar" is broken in the same way. We should probably have the
installer offer to configure a smart mail host.

Frederick