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1 | Sendmail Version 8 |
2 | Frequently Asked Questions | |
3 | VERY EARLY DRAFT | |
4 | Last Update: October 18, 1993 | |
5 | ||
6 | ||
7 | This FAQ is specific to Version 8 of sendmail. | |
8 | ||
9 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
10 | * What are the differences between Version 8 and other versions? | |
11 | ||
12 | See CHANGES-R5-R8 in the anonymous FTP directory. | |
13 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
14 | * What happened to sendmail 6.x and 7.x? | |
15 | ||
16 | When I released a new version of sendmail, I changed it to | |
17 | Release 6. Development continued in that tree until 4.4BSD | |
18 | was released, when everything on the 4.4 tape was set to be | |
19 | version 8.1. Version 7.x never existed. | |
20 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
21 | * Where can I get Version 8? | |
22 | ||
23 | Via anonymous FTP from FTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU in /ucb/sendmail. | |
24 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
25 | * Version 8 requires a new version of "make". Where can I get this? | |
26 | ||
27 | Actually, Version 8 does not require a new version of "make". | |
28 | It includes a collection of Makefiles for different architectures, | |
29 | only one or two of which require the new "make". If you are | |
30 | porting to a new architecture, start with Makefile.dist. | |
31 | ||
32 | If you really do want the new make, it is available on any of | |
33 | the BSD Net2 distribution sites. These include: | |
34 | ||
35 | ftp.uu.net /systems/unix/bsd-sources | |
36 | gatekeeper.dec.com /.0/BSD/net2 | |
37 | ucquais.cba.uc.edu /pub/net2 | |
38 | ftp.luth.se /pub/unix/4.3bsd/net2 | |
39 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
40 | * What macro package do I use to format the V8 man pages? | |
41 | ||
42 | The BSD group switched over the the ``mandoc'' macros for | |
43 | the 4.4 release. These include more hooks designed for | |
44 | hypertext handling. However, new man pages won't format | |
45 | under the old man macros. Fortunately, old man pages will | |
46 | format under the new mandoc macros. | |
47 | ||
48 | Get the new macros with the BSD Net2 release. | |
49 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
50 | * What books are available describing sendmail? | |
51 | ||
52 | There are currently no books available devoted to sendmail. | |
53 | However, there are several books that have sendmail chapters. | |
54 | ||
55 | Nemeth, Snyder, and Seebass, _Unix System Administration | |
56 | Handbook_. Prentice-Hall. | |
57 | Carl-Mitchell and Quarterman, _Practical Internetworking with | |
58 | TCP/IP and UNIX_. Addison-Wesley. | |
59 | Hunt, _TCP/IP Network Administration_. O'Reilly & Associates. | |
60 | ||
61 | | At least two books are due out "soon": | |
62 | ||
63 | Costales, Allman, and Rickert, _Sendmail_. O'Reilly & | |
64 | | Associates (to appear 11/93). | |
65 | Avolio & Vixie, _Sendmail Theory and Practice_. Digital | |
66 | | Press (release date unknown). | |
67 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
68 | * How do I make all my addresses appear to be from a single host? | |
69 | ||
70 | Using the V8 configuration macros, use: | |
71 | ||
72 | MASQUERADE_AS(my.dom.ain) | |
73 | ||
74 | This will cause all addresses to be sent out as being from | |
75 | the indicated domain. | |
76 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
77 | * How do I rewrite my From: lines to read ``First_Last@My.Domain''? | |
78 | ||
79 | There are a couple of ways of doing this. This describes using | |
80 | the "user database" code. This is still experimental, and was | |
81 | intended for a different purpose -- however, it does work | |
82 | with a bit of care. It does require that you have the Berkeley | |
83 | "db" package installed (it won't work with DBM). | |
84 | ||
85 | First, create your input file. This should have lines like: | |
86 | ||
87 | loginname:mailname First_Last | |
88 | First_Last:maildrop loginname | |
89 | ||
90 | Install it in (say) /etc/userdb. Create the database: | |
91 | ||
92 | makemap btree /etc/userdb.db < /etc/userdb | |
93 | ||
94 | You can then create a config file that uses this. You will | |
95 | have to include the following in your .mc file: | |
96 | ||
97 | define(confUSERDB_SPEC, /etc/userdb.db) | |
98 | FEATURE(notsticky) | |
99 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
100 | * So what was the user database feature intended for? | |
101 | ||
102 | The intent was to have all information for a given user (where | |
103 | the user is the unique login name, not an inherently non-unique | |
104 | full name) in one place. This would include phone numbers, | |
105 | addresses, and so forth. The "maildrop" feature is because | |
106 | Berkeley does not use a centralized mail server (there are a | |
107 | number of reasons for this that are mostly historic), and so | |
108 | we need to know where each user gets his or her mail delivered -- | |
109 | i.e., the mail drop. | |
110 | ||
111 | We are in the process of setting up our environment so that | |
112 | mail sent to an unqualified "name" goes to that person's | |
113 | preferred maildrop; mail sent to "name@host" goes to that | |
114 | host. The purpose of "FEATURE(notsticky)" is to cause | |
115 | "name@host" to be looked up in the user database for delivery | |
116 | to the maildrop. | |
117 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
118 | * Why are you so hostile to using full names for e-mail addresses? | |
119 | ||
120 | Because full names are not unique. For example, the computer | |
121 | community has two Andy Tannenbaums and two Peter Deutsches. | |
122 | At one time, Bell Labs had two Stephen R. Bournes with offices | |
123 | a few doors apart. You can create alternative addresses | |
124 | (e.g., Stephen_R_Bourne_2), but that's even worse -- which | |
125 | one of them has to have their name desecrated in this way? | |
126 | And you can bet that they will get most of the other person's | |
127 | email. | |
128 | ||
129 | So called "full names" are just longer versions of unique | |
130 | names. Rather that lulling people into a sense of security, | |
131 | I'd rather that it be clear that these handles are arbitrary. | |
132 | People should use good user agents that have alias mappings | |
133 | so that they can attach arbitrary names for their personal | |
134 | use to those with whom they correspond. | |
135 | ||
136 | Even worse is fuzzy matching in e-mail -- this can make good | |
137 | addresses turn bad. For example, I'm currently (to the best | |
138 | of my knowledge) the only ``Allman'' at Berkeley, so mail | |
139 | sent to "Allman@Berkeley.EDU" should get to me. But if | |
140 | another Allman ever appears, this address could suddenly | |
141 | become ambiguous. I've been the only Allman at Berkeley for | |
142 | over fifteen years -- to suddenly have this "good address" | |
143 | bounce mail because it is ambiguous would be a heinous wrong. | |
144 | ||
145 | Finger services should be as fuzzy as possible. Mail services | |
146 | should be unique. | |
147 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
148 | * When I use sendmail V8 with a Sun config file I get lines like: | |
149 | ||
150 | /etc/sendmail.cf: line 273: replacement $3 out of bounds | |
151 | ||
152 | the line in question reads: | |
153 | ||
154 | R$*<@$%y>$* $1<@$2.LOCAL>$3 user@ether | |
155 | ||
156 | what does this mean? How do I fix it? | |
157 | ||
158 | V8 doesn't recognize the Sun "$%y" syntax, so as far as it | |
159 | is concerned, there is only a $1 and a $2 (but no $3) in this | |
160 | line. Read Rick McCarty's paper on "Converting Standard Sun | |
161 | Config Files to Sendmail Version 8", in the contrib directory | |
162 | (file "converting.sun.configs") on the sendmail distribution | |
163 | for a full discussion of how to do this. | |
164 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
165 | * Should I use a wildcard MX for my domain? | |
166 | ||
167 | If at all possible, no. | |
168 | ||
169 | Wildcard MX records have lots of semantic "gotcha"s. For | |
170 | example, they will match a host "unknown.your.domain" -- if | |
171 | you don't explicitly test for unknown hosts in your domain, | |
172 | you will get "config error: mail loops back to myself" | |
173 | errors. | |
174 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
175 | * I'm connected to the network via a SLIP link. Sometimes my sendmail | |
176 | process hangs (although it looks like part of the message has been | |
177 | transfered). Everything else works. What's wrong? | |
178 | ||
179 | Most likely, the problem isn't sendmail at all, but the low | |
180 | level network connection. It's important that the MTU (Maximum | |
181 | Transfer Unit) for the SLIP connection be set properly at both | |
182 | ends. If they disagree, large packets will be trashed and | |
183 | the connection will hang. | |
184 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
185 | + * How can I get sendmail to deliver local mail to $HOME/.mail | |
186 | + instead of into /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail)? | |
187 | + | |
188 | + This is a local mailer issue, not a sendmail issue. Either | |
189 | + modify your local mailer (source code will be required) or | |
190 | + change the program called in the "local" mailer configuration | |
191 | + description to be a new program that does this local delivery. | |
192 | + I understand that "procmail" works well, although I haven't | |
193 | + used it myself. | |
194 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
195 | + * Under V8, the "From " header gets mysteriously munged when I send | |
196 | + to an alias. | |
197 | + | |
198 | + ``It's not a bug, it's a feature.'' This happens when you have | |
199 | + a "owner-list" alias and you send to "list". V8 propogates the | |
200 | + owner information into the envelope sender field (which appears | |
201 | + as the "From " header on UNIX mail or as the Return-Path: header) | |
202 | + so that downstream errors are properly returned to the mailing | |
203 | + list owner instead of to the sender. In order to make this | |
204 | + appear as sensible as possible to end users, I recommend making | |
205 | + the owner point to a "request" address -- for example: | |
206 | + | |
207 | + list: :include:/path/name/list.list | |
208 | + owner-list: list-request | |
209 | + list-request: eric | |
210 | + | |
211 | + This will make message sent to "list" come out as being | |
212 | + "From list-request" instead of "From eric". | |
213 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |