Envelope and Header From Addresses

The envelope From: address for a message should be specified with the MTA_USER item code. With this item code, only the local part of a mail address may be specified, that is, the user name. The mtaSend() routine will automatically append the official local host name to the user name so as to produce a valid mail address.

The MTA_ENV_FROM item code may be used to explicitly specify a complete envelope From: address but this is usually not necessary. Applications that enqueue nonlocal mail should probably be using the SDK routines rather than mtaSend().

If neither MTA_USER nor MTA_ENV_FROM are specified, then the user name associated with the current process will be used for the envelope From: address. When MTA_USER is used, the From: header line will be derived from the envelope From: address. When MTA_ENV_FROM is used, the From: header line will be derived from the user name of the current process. In either case, if a From: header line is supplied in an initial header, then a Sender: header line will be added to the message header. The initial From: header line will be left intact and the address specified, and Sender: address will be derived from either the envelope From: address (MTA_USER) or from the user name of the current process, that is, from MTA_ENV_FROM.

Only privileged users may use MTA_USER to specify a user name different than that of the current process. To be considered a “privileged” process on UNIX® systems, the process must have the same (real) user ID (UID) as either the root or Messaging Server account.