Re: lynx-dev Forwarded mail....

[Henry Nelson]

> under <http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/40/40435.html> - especially
> if you are the person responsible for the change of the
> NO_ANONYMOUS_EMAIL default...

Probably I am most responsible.  It comes from my bias of providing
a public-access Lynx service.  However, if I recall correctly, the
original wording in userdefs.h suggested that allowing someone to add
the From: header was ill-advised; thus, the default to not allow it
seemed reasonable at the time.

> reasonably.  And hopefully nobody would offer anonymous lynx guest logins
> to the world using a binary package without careful examination.).

Very true, and becoming increasingly so.  If the default is changed back,
then a warning to ISPs offering such a service might be warranted.

> If i am not wrong, no one should be worried about this.  People can set its

I do not think all sysadm's would agree.

> On the other  hand, preventing the user  from adding a From: line  is not a
> good idea  in any case.  In  most situations, the  system cannot reasonably
> guess the  correct mail  address of a  user, like  when one has  dynamic IP
> address, or when  is behind a firewall, or more simply  when mail is popped
> from a server, rather than being received directly via SMTP.

The argument goes both ways.  A system administrator running a "system [that]
cannot reasonably guess the  correct mail  address of a  user", and who
expected users to correctly enter their e-mail address, IMO would be
obligated to comment out the line when compiling Lynx for that system.

I would just add that since Lynx has now largely become a PC or standalone-
system application, making restrictive defaults doesn't make as much sense
as it used to.

> So I suggest that the above line  in userdefs.h be commented out.  It was a

So, in short, no problem from this corner at least.

__Henry