[Mimedefang] Slightly OT: Sendmail config option for accepting user.name at domain.com

[Kees Theunissen]

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014, David F. Skoll wrote:

>On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 10:36:13 -0500
>Ben Kamen <bkamen at benjammin.net> wrote:
>
>> What's the config option so that sendmail accepts  mail to a user's
>> "Full Name" field?
>
>There's a really ancient Sendmail configuration directive that makes it
>look at the gecos field of /etc/passwd.
>
>define(`confMATCH_GECOS',`true')dnl
>
>http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/other/Docs/oreilly/other2/Sendmail_3rd/1565928393_ch24-34890.html

Don't use that! It is way too fuzzy and error prone. At least it was
a long time ago on a Silicon Graphics Irix 5.x system.

One of our users had the habit to enter a "q" (for "quit") when he
had entered a recipient list in his interactive, text based, mail client.
The mail client took this "q" as recipient name and handed it over
to sendmail. Sendmail used the GECOS field to resolved this "q"
into a user name. The only match for "q" in the GECOS fields happend
to be the third initial of one of the other users. So that guy
received quite a few unintentional CC's of the first user's outbound
mail.


I would just put the alternative addresses in the aliases file.


Regards,

Kees Theunissen.

-- 
Kees Theunissen,  System and network manager,   Tel: +31 (0)30 6096724
Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER)
e-mail address:   C.J.Theunissen at differ.nl
postal address:   PO Box 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein, NL
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