[Bug 1414684] [NEW] bsd-mailx no longer supports sendmail options, thus breaking existing scripts (like Bootmail)

[Andreas Ntaflos]

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 at 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 at 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?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1414684

Title:
  bsd-mailx no longer supports sendmail options, thus breaking existing
  scripts (like Bootmail)

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