GNU bug report logs - #56855
27.1; sendmail-send-it considers it an error if sendmail wrote to stdout/stderr

Previous Next

Full log

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Justus Winter <justus <at> sequoia-pgp.org>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 27.1; sendmail-send-it considers it an error if sendmail wrote to
 stdout/stderr
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 15:08:28 +0200

sendmail-send-it considers it an error if sendmail wrote to
stdout/stderr, despite the fact that the process returned success.

I use msmtp with the authentication password encrypted using OpenPGP.
Then, I use 'gpg --no-tty -q -d ...' as msmtp's passwordeval function.
Now, my OpenPGP key has expired, but that doesn't stop GnuPG from
decrypting the secret, and in fact it returns the status code 0.  It
also prints

  gpg: Note: secret key 08CC70F8D8CC765A expired at Mon 25 Jul 2022 05:31:26 PM CEST

to stderr, which is picked up by emacs, it says

  sending...failed to gpg: Note: secret key 08CC70F8D8CC765A expired at Mon 25 Jul 2022 05:31:26 PM CEST

in the status buffer while the compose buffer stays open.  Note that
despite this, the message has been sent successfully, while emacs
indicates that the sending has failed.

I wrote to the notmuch mailing list before investigating further, and at
least one other person hat a similar problem.  The thread is here:

https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/nmweb/show/87k080jgx8.fsf%40thinkbox

I dug into emacs, and discovered that indeed sendmail-send-it considers
any output from the sendmail process to be an indication of an error,
even if the process returned 0.  I read documentation of various
sendmail implementations, and all agreed that returning success meant
that the operation succeeded.  I found no justification for emacs
thinking that the operation failed if the process printed to stdout or
stderr.

Best,
Justus

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.