[Pkg-exim4-users] root emails - "From:" - no details of server.domain.com displayed

[Peter Gossner]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:47:18 +0100 (CET)
Maarten Bezemer <mcbexim at robuust.nl> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, 13 Jan 2011, John Mchugh wrote:
> 
> > We have a shed load of Debian servers running exim4 and mailing
> > management info (ie cron-apt completions) to head office MS
> > Exchange (Sorry!) The issue is that the root emails are displayed,
> > in outlook as: From                Subject root
> > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > To find out which server has mailed we have to open the message and
> > find the info displayed as: root [root at server.domain-name.com]
> > a bit of a pain! - my management would like to see the following:
> >
> > From                                     Subject
> > root at server.domain-name.com              xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > which it does fine for none priv users.
> 
> Although the Subject line includes hostnames for quite a number of 
> cron-triggered emails, there is an easy way to get this done.
> 
> The From-line displayed in outlook is just the contents of the "From:
> " header line. If, for non-priv users, this displays an email
> address, that probably means those users haven't configured their own
> names. (Which, in an MS Exchange setup, could be either by policy or
> by the user's ignorance.)
> 
> When sending emails from cron (or command line or whatever) that do
> not include a "From: " header, it is added by the mail software (in
> this case, Exim) based on the GECOS information of the user.
> This is the 5th field of the line defining the user in /etc/passwd.
> For root, this simply says "root" on default Debian installs.
> 
> Using "chfn" you could for example change the description of the root 
> account into something like "Root @ computername". That value will
> then be displayed in outlook.

Sweet solution !
Very nice.
(and simple)

> 
> 
> > *************************************************************************
> >
> > This email and its attachments are intended for the above named
> > only and may be confidential.
> 
> Cut that legal crap.
> If the company policy is to allow sending confidential information by 
> non-encrypted and not even digitally signed email, then it should 
> seriously reconsider that policy, not add silly disclaimers.
> 
> 


-- 
Message made on joni.tux: Sun Jan 16 02:25:07 UTC 2011
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Peter Gossner <gossner at internode.on.net>
<pete.gossner at gmail.com>