set 'reply to' in mail

michaelvv · 03-05-2009, 12:36 PM

I need to set 'reply to' when sending mail (similar to -r in AIX). I am not the System Administrator and having things changed here (user entry in /etc/passwd) is like pulling teeth. I tried to set REPLYTO but to no avail. There is no mailx on any of our Linux boxes. I'm stumped and any help is appreciated.

TB0ne · 03-05-2009, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelvv

I need to set 'reply to' when sending mail (similar to -r in AIX). I am not the System Administrator and having things changed here (user entry in /etc/passwd) is like pulling teeth. I tried to set REPLYTO but to no avail. There is no mailx on any of our Linux boxes. I'm stumped and any help is appreciated.

Well, what version/distro of Linux? And what mail program are you using, if you don't have mailx running? And how have you tried to set REPLYTO?

Mailx does have a command-line switch to set the reply-to address, but that doesn't help you in this case.

michaelvv · 03-05-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne

Well, what version/distro of Linux? And what mail program are you using, if you don't have mailx running? And how have you tried to set REPLYTO?

Mailx does have a command-line switch to set the reply-to address, but that doesn't help you in this case.

uname -a
Linux webdev01 2.4.21-32.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Apr 15 21:17:59 EDT 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

export REPLYTO=xxx@yyy.com

I'm running the Korn shell

Tinkster · 03-05-2009, 05:21 PM

And what are you using to send mail?

michaelvv · 03-05-2009, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkster

And what are you using to send mail?

/bin/mail

Tinkster · 03-05-2009, 07:58 PM

So it's an ancient dead-rat machine?

Has it got mutt? sendmail?

TB0ne · 03-05-2009, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelvv

uname -a
Linux webdev01 2.4.21-32.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Apr 15 21:17:59 EDT 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

export REPLYTO=xxx@yyy.com

I'm running the Korn shell

Well, the uname -a will give you kernel and other info. Version/distro is like RedHat 5 or OpenSuSE 10.3, etc.

Based on your kernel, and the references to the mail program you're running, it's not surprising you're missing some options.

You can try to download/install a more modern mail program from source, but given what you say about your environment, that may not be easy. And exporting that environment variable...never seen that done before....