formmail.pl and Sendmail

[dave@mmu]

Hi all, i've been asked by a webmaster who runs a site on one of our Os X Servers to try and get his formmail.pl script to use sendmail to post his form entries. I've changed the script so it points to the right place for sendmail and the domain ip, but no luck. I can't even send a mail from sendmail direct from the terminal so i'm assuming that has something to do with it. Any hints on getting these two to talk nicely? Apparently formmail.pl is pretty standard stuff???
Thanks in advance..Dave

[babbage]

Originally posted by dave@mmu
Hi all, i've been asked by a webmaster who runs a site on one of our Os X Servers to try and get his formmail.pl script to use sendmail to post his form entries.

Ugh -- the Matt Wright one? That code is riddled with bugs and security flaws. Yes, it is pretty standard, but it has also been pretty much abandoned. I strongly suggest that, rather than fighting against the script it sounds like you have, that you instead take a look at the NMS project at http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/. NMS is developing a series of drop-in replacements for all of the MW scripts, including FormMail.PL. It is hoped that these ones are easier to set up, better documented, and safer to use. If you have any questions, there is a mailing list (see site for details) where the developers do a pretty good job at helping out new users (since, after all, the scripts are intended for new users).

Also, it sounds like your question is at least as much about Sendmail as it is abotu CGI scripts. If you can't get it to work from the command line then any scripts relying on it are going to have a hard time as well. It is possible to get sendmail working (sorry, I don't grok sendmail well enough to try to walk someone through the process, but it can be done), but again if you go with the NMS version of FormMail, they offer a little Perl script that substitutes for what you need of Sendmail as well. Check it out! :)

[dave@mmu]

Thanks! I eventually got it working but only when the server sends an email to a user local to itself (i.e not over the network). I then set up the server with an account and switched on the email server so that i could imap to it. Then i got my mail.app to check it every 5 mins and if it finds one to transfer it to my regular inbox. Bit around-the-houses but it works!
I'd really like to get formail.pl off my server but some poxy webmistress wants it on there.
cheers, Dave

[brodie]

hey babbage thanks for the nms link, i've been looking for an alternative for matt's sendmail script!