Re: Changing the default for `send-mail-function'

[Antoine Levitt]

05/07/11 14:45, Richard Stallman
> Since there are problems with having Emacs check at run time
> whether there is a configured MTA, I propose doing it inside
> `make install'.

make install isn't necessarilly run at all.

>
> It could run a program that tries sending messages to certain chosen
> addresses, and detects the results.  This program could afford to wait
> a certain amount of time for the results to show up, with no danger it
> will be terminated by a user who does not realize it is still working
> on the problem.

Please, please, please don't do that. That looks like the kind of bloat
that rarely ends well, especially with mail being such a huge mess with
god knows how many programs interfering in various ways with mail
delivery. Also, I really don't want my "make install" to send mail (or
indeed, to do anything except, well, install).

> Since `make install' is run as root

Not always.

Anyways, this seems like a lot of trouble (and would complicate the task
of distro packagers) for a minor feature. More generally, this whole
thread screams "overengineering" IMO. Just set a default (smtp or not),
and users will figure out how to fix it if it doesn't work. Automagic is
nice, but more likely to have bugs, and can be confusing (many people
share their emacs configuration between machines, and might be baffled
as to why one emacs sends via SMTP and some other via sendmail).