topic Re: Changing Sendmail priority in Operating System - HP-UX

Changing Sendmail priority

NPS Unix — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 14:51:07 GMT

Hi all,

I'm looking for a way to change the default priority of outgoing mail in sendmail. Have found a resolution for ELM but can't find anything for sendmail. I need to change the default to High Priority on all outgoing mail.
B180L workstation, HP-UX 10.20, Sendmail version 8.9.3.

Thanks,

Re: Changing Sendmail priority

Christopher Caldwell — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 16:31:23 GMT

Do you mean priority from the mail viewers perspective (e.g. ^^) or priority from the perspective of order in queue processing?

Re: Changing Sendmail priority

NPS Unix — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 17:00:51 GMT

I'm referring to the priority of the message when it goes out and hit the Exchange mail server for re-direction. There must be a flag we can setup for the message to have high priority and be treated as such in the mail server.

Re: Changing Sendmail priority

Christopher Caldwell — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 20:30:36 GMT

Here's are some "priorities" folks usually recognize:

X- headers:
e.g. X-priority. I've also seen
X-MSMail-Priority:

importance ...
Importance: High

AFAIK, the X headers and importance don't affect how sendmail delivers mail. They may affect how a client presents or sorts mail, and they may affect how other mail systems (e.g. Exchange) view or prioritize mail.

Precendence:

Priority:

Precedence an Priority are used by sendmail in queue processing and sorting. I'm not sure they have much meaning outside of sendmail.

I'd imagine that you'd like an X- header, though how different apps deal with the "priorities" is really up to the app. Try adding a rule to mark up each mail with an X-header.5

Re: Changing Sendmail priority

NPS Unix — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 20:43:33 GMT

You are absolutaly right Christopher, but how can I put this to be applicable to all outgoing mail ? I was able to implement it for "elm" by creating a "$HOME/.elm" file and configuring "precedences", but if the user uses "mailx" or another program, it doesn't work. My assumption is they all use the sendmail configuration to get their emails outside their own domain/system. If my assumptions are right, then there must be an option for setting the "precedence/priority" to high by default within the sendmail configurations. There is, in the "sendmail.cf" file, a section for "precedence", but there are no clear descriptions of it's function or example to setup the mail clients to use it.

How can I create a rule to mark up each mail with an X-header?

Thanks,

Re: Changing Sendmail priority

W.C. Epperson — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 15:46:44 GMT

You can define a header in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf like this:

HX-Liability-Disclaimer: ABC Corp not responsible for this blather.

Or whatever header text you want, after the "H".

The "H" directive could be placed anywhere in sendmail.cf before the rulesets start.
In practice, I'd put it at the end of the part where the other "H" directives are.
It looks something like this:
#########################
# Format of headers #
#########################

H?P?Return-Path: <$g>
HReceived: $?sfrom $s $.$?_($?s$|from $.$_)
$.by $j ($v/$Z)$?r with $r$. id $i$?u
for $u; $|;
$.$b
H?D?Resent-Date: $a
H?D?Date: $a
H?F?Resent-From: $?x$x <$g>$|$g$.
H?F?From: $?x$x <$g>$|$g$.
H?x?Full-Name: $x
# HPosted-Date: $a
# H?l?Received-Date: $b
H?M?Resent-Message-Id: <$t.$i@$j>
H?M?Message-Id: <$t.$i@$j>