Re: message-make-sender - what's the purpose?

[Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 12:54 AM, Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org> wrote:

> For me (message-make-sender) returns "sds@sds-MacBook-Pro.local".
> When can this value be ever useful?

That function relies on several assumptions that has long become
obsolete: that every machine where a mail user agent might run is
reachable on the Internet, has a host name, and runs a mail transfer
agent which accepts mail directed at that host name.

Under that assumption, if you were user “sds” on a host “example.org”,
email addressed at “sds@example.org” would be delivered to you.

In a modern world, MUAs run on machines which are not “on” the
Internet. They only have true connectivity within a local network and
use NAT when talking to the outside world. Users’ machines have host
names which are only meaningful within the local network. Users’
machines do not run an MTA, preferring to send mail via their mail
provider’s servers.

Now if you were to ssh into a box on your provider’s network and run
Emacs there, the value returned by (message-make-sender) might have a
chance of being useful.