Re: Changing the default for `send-mail-function'

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    As previously discussed, the default value of `send-mail-function' would
    change to `smtpmail-send-it' (on all architectures) after the smtpmail.el
    rework was complete.

The current setting is sendmail-send-it.
That works by calling the system's mailer, which (we can presume)
has already been configured for the sake of other mail programs.

    At least on Windows, the system mailer (Outlook or whatever) is
    normally already configured, and many times by a person other than the
    one who invoked Emacs.  The latter might not know the address or the
    credentials, or both.

This is often the case on GNU/Linux, too.  

When this isn't the case, the user will have to configure mail sending
somehow.  In that case, what advantage is there in configuring mail in
Emacs, rather than doing it at the system level so that every program
or script can send mail?

Is there a way Emacs can determine whether mail sending has been
configured at the system level, and if not, ask the user
to do so either in Emacs (with smtpmail) or else at system level
(and use sendmail-send-it)?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
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Boston MA 02110
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