From: markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
  To  : <masqmail@marmaro.de>
  Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:14:06 +0100

specifying multiple modes

Hoi,

masqmail, actually sendmail, operates in modes. Masqmail implements
those:
-bd:   listen daemon
-qXXX: queue daemon
-q:    single queue run
-qo:   single online queue run
-bm:   accept messages as text on stdin (will be added with 0.3.1)
-bs:   accept messages as SMTP on stdin
-bp:   print the queue contents
-bi:   update the alias database (a no-op in masqmail)
-Mrm:  remove messages from the queue
-bV:   print the version and exit

Some of them can also be activated by calling masqmail under a special
name. E.g. ``mailq'' is equivilent to -bp.

How should we deal with multiple modes specified?

Examples:

masqmail -bs -bp

mailq -bs

masqmail -bV -q

Currently the last one wins. A bit of unstructurated testing with exim
and postfix showed that they follow a similar approach. (Postfix's
modular design makes it impossible in some cases.)

It seems as if currently the MTAs simply assume that the user requests
senseful combinations. A senseless call might lead to a senseless
result.

The problem clearly lies in the initial design, coming from sendmail,
but with that we need to deal.


Currently I am in favor for checking for incompatible combinations and
failing in these cases.


The only modes compatible are -bd (listen daemon) and -q with argument
(queue daemon).


Maybe -q (without argument) and -qo (with or without argument) could
be compatible too. I am not sure yet. -qo is masqmail-specific. We
also could want to allow multiple -qo arguments or to specify an
argument list to it. (e.g. `masqmail -qo gmx,web,yahoo')

Btw: The man page masqmail(8) is wrong about -q. It does also send
mail to remote destinations if an online connection is available,
which is more likely the ``right thing''.


Any comments?


meillo