From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alex Schroeder Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs Manual: Mail sending via SMTP Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:25:49 +0100 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <87d6ljaxaq.fsf@emacswiki.org> References: <84wujsd2qk.fsf@lucy.is.informatik.uni-duisburg.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1046010445 9553 80.91.224.249 (23 Feb 2003 14:27:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 14:27:25 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18mx6A-0002Tp-00 for ; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:27:22 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 18mxLB-0000Za-00 for ; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:42:53 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18mx6I-0003V7-0B for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:27:30 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18mx5v-0003Dt-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:27:07 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18mx5d-0002cz-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:26:50 -0500 Original-Received: from isp247n.hispeed.ch ([62.2.95.247] helo=smtp.hispeed.ch) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18mx4x-0001EP-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:26:07 -0500 Original-Received: from confusibombus (dclient217-162-232-232.hispeed.ch [217.162.232.232])h1NEPnjm016001 for ; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:25:50 +0100 Original-Received: from alex by confusibombus with local (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 18mx4f-0000EU-00 for ; Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:25:49 +0100 Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Face: iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwBAMAAAClLOS0AAAAG1BMVEX///89Pjl6hX25yeD/ 373gtJdgTEW6a14sduMzR7J4AAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAAeJJREFUeNp1lMGSmzAMhvMKolOaa5wB cg3p5gGy8va8xCZn0658LlPg3Bw6PHZlArbZ2XUOJHz+f1mylM3pk7UJX8t/zf4DUOYAlJJnHuyA ARgCIVagNLCsZA0grMkuBrQQ5/aRAtII7GIA+f4TAM11AWYN4OcMntwPiuh+E2I3Q0GUphNNF3Di /UU2DD29UzxB2rZZpat+8iQKVkmRaV7VtJ988BPYttMaUebrU5XQuP0KsTJrkAoHkEH+DnQzmCVf PJiskL3kbq0goW996zR1DLhWqb0RtBniS5ygK2Jy6/lsCl8M57FU1135V6xTOyi8pDYDfx85mF+o h46DXKj7QQsoBdEflC5DvGRKZl4hsp5fToAfOlytEAPOCn6qAIqiUVJ2DJRTBnAuLGd+69Alj/Ia QG8s6dubcgJVBkVJ9I3rOExBpIgURG9aYuWKJesmKE5Edpjy49B5E81Hbsg+7hDxdxKBM1vNV/Vs ksiqtFxA5cD3V4itarKt5sPK51cDIjouWO4rKZE7y8A9gCM0mVaSo5ir2R68FTc194l7XycCxoNX HF23Z7oSBYkdHILVY4yaPDdJ9Xc7enD0Y2mSHMZxvM/AjxIBg/soZnD2fwrcXrBlhXiAZYweQzje +XP6D3vk9qXUjAFlAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC In-Reply-To: (Simon Josefsson's message of "Sun, 23 Feb 2003 13:17:34 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.090016 (Oort Gnus v0.16) Emacs/21.2.92 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:11878 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:11878 Simon Josefsson writes: > Since it is now a standalone manual, I think everything that we can > say about the library is appropriate. Yay! Maybe we can expand it a bit more? :) Russel's answer to my original intro-paragraph made it clear that a separate section might be appropriate -- explain MTA, MUA, SMTP (we have these three already), POP3, IMAP (the two major players only), spool, procmail (mail delivery agent, MDA?). Here is an expanded version. Cheers, Alex "Document Mode" Schroeder. :) How Mail Works On the Internet, mail is sent from mail host to mail host using the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP). To send and receive mail, you must get it from and send it to a mail host. Every mail host runs a mail transger agent (MTA) such as sendmail that accepts mails and passes them on. The communication between a mail host and other clients does not necessarily involve SMTP, however. Here is short overview of what is involved. The mail program -- also called a mail user agent (MUA) -- usually sends outgoing mail to a mail host. When your computer is permanently connected to the internet, it might even be a mail host itself. In this case, the MUA will send mail to the SMTP port on the same computer. A local mail transfer agent (MTA) such as exim or sendmail will take care of your mail and pass it on to the next mail host. When you are only connected to the internet from time to time, your internet service provider (ISP) has probably told you which mail host to use. You must configure your MUA to use that mail host. Since you are reading this manual, you probably want to configure Emacs to use SMTP to send mail to that mail host. More on that in the next section. Things are different when reading mail. The mail host responsible for your mail keeps it in a file somewhere. When your computer is that mail host, this file is called a spool, and sometimes located in the directory /var/spool/mail/. All your MUA has to do is read mail from the spool, then. When your computer is not always connected to the Internet, you must get the mail from the remote mail host using a protocol such as POP3 or IMAP. POP3 essentially downloads all your mail from the mail host to your computer. The mail is stored in some file on your computer, and again, all your MUA has to do is read mail from the spool. Sometimes mail is passed to yet another program, a mail delivery agent (MDA) such as procmail. These delivery agents often allow you to filter and munge your mails before you get to see it. When you read mail from various machines, downloading mail from the mail host to your current machine is not convenient. In that case, you will probably want to use the IMAP protocol. Your mail is kept on the mail host, and you can read it while you are connected via IMAP to the mail host. So how does reading mail via the web work, you ask. In that case, the web interface just allows you to remote-control a MUA on the web host. Whether the web host is also a mail host, and how all the pieces interact is completely irrelevant. You usually cannot use Emacs to read mail via the web, unless you use software that parses the ever-changing HTML of the web interface. Emacs speaks SMTP Emacs includes a package for sending your mail to a SMTP server and have it take care of delivering it to the final destination, rather than letting the MTA on your local system take care of it. ...