Comment 6 for bug 137994

Hi Michael
Thanks for your work on this package.

For most cases the second patch doesn't need any changes to the configuration file as it defaults to port 25 on localhost.

Where my patch would need a configuration change is where the mail system does not listen on port 25 and relies on delivery via a sendmail binary. Examples would be a satellite MTA which just passes email onto another system, examples being sstmp or a special configuration of a full MTA such as postfix/exim/sendmail. These systems would need the Mail-Server variable set in the configuration file.

If the mail server requires the use of TLS and certificates then smtplib could cover that, but I haven't written any code yet.

Advantages of continuing to use mailx:
1) Doesn't required an MTA that listens on port 25.
2) Does not extra code to work with MTAs that require TLS.

Advantages of using smtplib:
1) Better options for logging and debugging.
2) No reliance on mailx package or subprocesses.
3) No reliance on working MTA on localhost.

If we wish to include both than I could add a little extra code to see /usr/bin/mail is present and if it is not then to switch to using smtplib.

I'll leave it to you to decide which is the best of those three options, especially considering the upcoming release next month.