Public bug reported: The security update of bsd-mailx (8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1ubuntu0.1 on Ubuntu 12.04) removes bsd-mailx's support for specifying sendmail options after "--" on the commandline.
This breaks any script that supplies classic sendmail options like -F or -f on the mail commandline. A prominent example is Bootmail, which calls mailx in the following way: print_mail_text | sed -e "s/[^[:print:]]//g" | rootsign | mail -s "$subject" "$recipients" -- -F "Bootmail" -f "$FROM_MAIL" Here the options -F and -f are used to set the From: header in the resulting mail message. This is now broken and results in error messages like these in /var/log/mail.log (on systems that run Postfix): Jan 26 16:20:09 example01 postfix/error[31885]: 4351640CB7: to=<-f...@web01.example.com>, orig_to=<-F>, relay=none, delay=0.16, delays=0.12/0/0/0.05, dsn=5.1.3, status=bounced (bad address syntax) Is this change going to stay for good? In that case we need to report a bug against the Bootmail package (and probably quite a few others) to change the mail commandline to use the "-a" commandline switch for specifying additional mail headers. I find it disconcerting that a security update completely removes functionality that has been available and expected for many years without providing a proper compatibility layer. Is this really the way to do this? ** Affects: bsd-mailx (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Description changed: - The security update of bsd-mailx (8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1ubuntu0.1) - removes bsd-mailx's support for specifying sendmail options after "--" - on the commandline. + The security update of bsd-mailx (8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1ubuntu0.1 on + Ubuntu 12.04) removes bsd-mailx's support for specifying sendmail + options after "--" on the commandline. This breaks any script that supplies classic sendmail options like -F or -f on the mail commandline. A prominent example is Bootmail, which calls mailx in the following way: print_mail_text | sed -e "s/[^[:print:]]//g" | rootsign | mail -s "$subject" "$recipients" -- -F "Bootmail" -f "$FROM_MAIL" Here the options -F and -f are used to set the From: header in the resulting mail message. This is now broken and results in error messages like these in /var/log/mail.log (on systems that run Postfix): Jan 26 16:20:09 example01 postfix/error[31885]: 4351640CB7: to=<-f...@web01.example.com>, orig_to=<-F>, relay=none, delay=0.16, delays=0.12/0/0/0.05, dsn=5.1.3, status=bounced (bad address syntax) Is this change going to stay for good? In that case we need to report a bug against the Bootmail package (and probably quite a few others) to change the mail commandline to use the "-a" commandline switch for specifying additional mail headers. I find it disconcerting that a security update completely removes functionality that has been available and expected for many years without providing a proper compatibility layer. Is this really the way to do this? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1414684 Title: bsd-mailx no longer supports sendmail options, thus breaking existing scripts (like Bootmail) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bsd-mailx/+bug/1414684/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs