Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: Using Sendmail and MMDF on the same host Message-ID: <3062@phri.UUCP> Date: 13 Dec 87 16:19:38 GMT References: <3047@phri.UUCP> <7807@g.ms.uky.edu> <540@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM> Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) Lines: 30 In article <540@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM> brian@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM (Brian Onn) writes: > I have a question... What is MMDF? MMDF and sendmail both perform the same function, that of a mail delivery agent. Whenever mail comes into a system (from any source; generated locally by a user or a program, from uucp, from a network connection, etc), the message is passed to the delivery agent which figures out what to do with it -- append it to somebody's mailbox, forward it to another system via one of several delivery mechanisms, pipe it into a program, reject it as undeliverable, etc. Delivery agents also handle such functions as logging mail deliveries, expanding mailing list names, and implementing aliases. One difference between sendmail and MMDF is how the output side is interfaced (sendmail calls them mailers, MMDF calls them channels). In sendmail, a separate program is executed to do the delivers (for example, for uucp delivery, sendmail will exec uux with the right arguments, and feed it the mail message as stdin). In MMDF, the channels are compiled into the delivery agent. The main advantage MMDF has over sendmail (at least to me) is that MMDF supports a PhoneNet channel; PhoneNet is a uucp-like protocol which is used to transfer mail via dial-up connections. We have another site here which talks PhoneMail which we want to talk to. An alternative is something called cmdf which is a PhoneNet mailer which interfaces to sendmail. -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016