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Message-ID: <ef20daa00705310801k6742de4fk6bb14787763ab7e6@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 10:01:06 -0500
From: "Frank Jones" <jonesf11@gmail.com>
To: modules-dev@httpd.apache.org
Subject: Re: Sending email from an Apache content generator
In-Reply-To: <20070531142617.6bd7157c@grimnir>
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References: <ef20daa00705310617v53f4e80br2a9322cadfeb775c@mail.gmail.com>
	 <20070531142617.6bd7157c@grimnir>

On 5/31/07, Nick Kew <nick@webthing.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 31 May 2007 08:17:13 -0500
> "Frank Jones" <jonesf11@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > What's a good way to send an email from a handler module? Is
> > system("mail") OK or is there a better way?
>
> That'll work if you don't care about performance or security.

Thanks, Nick.

As it happens, I don't much care about performance in my particular
case as this email will need to be sent rarely. I don't need to send
an email on every request. I do, however, care about security.

> To fix the security, hack up a perl/cgi prototype and fix
> the issues that perl's taint checking complains of.  To fix
> performance, drop the fork.

I should add some details. First, this is a pre-existing module in C,
not new development. I need to look up a value in a database and then
send a standard response email. There is no user input in the email so
my security concerns are not what they might be otherwise. Second, I
don't know anything at all about perl, although I suppose I could
learn enough to solve my particular problem pretty easily. Can I chain
a perl content generator behind my existing generator? If so, how?