[darcs-devel] darcs patch: Documentation only - clarify meaning of --from and --a...

[Kirsten Chevalier]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Roundy [mailto:droundy at darcs.net]
> Sent: 11 December 2006 22:56
> To: darcs-devel at darcs.net
> Cc: Kirsten Chevalier
> Subject: Re: [darcs-devel] darcs patch: Documentation only - clarify
> meaning of --from and --a...
>
> > Clarified the meaning of --from and --author. I had assumed that these
> > options also set the From: address on the email sent by "darcs sent".
> > Of course they don't, but it's better to make this clear. Also added my
> > name to the list of authors who originally only submitted an email
> address
>
> I haven't checked the code, but I'm pretty sure that --from *does* set the
> From address in the mail sent--or at least is intended to, and that that
> is
> all that it affects.

No, I don't think so. The program used to send email is configurable by the user. I don't know exactly which email clients do and don't allow email to be sent from arbitrary From: addresses, but not all of them do. Furthermore, allowing that is Considered Harmful. Sure, if you're using Unix you probably have sendmail and then you can set the From: to whatever you want (which probably isn't exactly right either, but that's a good enough oversimplification). If you are less fortunate, then the thing that sends email by default is Outlook, and it's probably not configured in a way that allows you to set the From:. And I hate to admit it, but that's probably a good thing.

So, in my opinion it would actually just be best to get rid of --from or at least only allow it when sendmail exists, or something. For those of us who are unfortunate, --from just won't work, so it's misleading to have it as an option.

Cheers,
Kirsten