RE: [bug-anubis] 'remote' usage of anubis

[Grant Sparks]

> The SMTP server uses an authenticated login - is 
> there some way I can authenticate myself to Anubis, so that 
> it will access my $HOME/.anubisrc ?

I have wondered about this myself.  There are plenty of SMTP proxy
servers around, most of which will set an environment variable to
identify a user who has successfully identified themselves using
whatever authentication mechanism is accepted by the site.  It would be
good for these to be able to pass the user information on to anubis and
eliminate the need to also use ident in this case.

Actually I'm not 100% clear on the reasoning behind using ident in the
first place.  I figure the choice was made more for philosophical
reasons relating to 1) Re-using pre-existing identification mechanisms
and 2) Ensuring that no-one falsely confuses the concepts of
identification/authentication.

But when we do have mechanisms in place (such as SMTP AUTH over SSL)
that we are using to securely identify the client, it would be great to
be able to use them for anubis too.  Can someone explain the rationale
behind the whole ident thing for me anyway?

Thanks,
Grant