merge a bit with Sun version
[unix-history] / usr / src / usr.sbin / sendmail / FAQ
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1Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail,comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.smail,comp.answers,news.answers
2Subject: comp.mail.sendmail Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
3From: brad@birch.ims.disa.mil (Brad Knowles)
4Followup-to: comp.mail.sendmail
5Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
6 (and their answers) about the program "sendmail", distributed
7 with many versions of Unix (and available for some other
8 operating systems). This FAQ is shared between
9 comp.mail.sendmail and the Sendmail V8 distribution. It should
10 be read by anyone who wishes to post to comp.mail.sendmail, or
11 anyone having questions about the newsgroup itself.
12
13Archive-name: mail/sendmail-faq
14Posting-Frequency: monthly (first Monday)
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15
16
17[The most recent copy of this document can be obtained via anonymous
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18FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq.
19If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can retrieve it by
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20sending email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command "send
21usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq" in the message.]
22
23
24
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25 Sendmail Version 8
26 Frequently Asked Questions
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27 Last updated %G%
28
3055c3a0 29
31e11046 30This FAQ is specific to Version 8.6.10 of sendmail. Other questions,
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31particularly regarding compilation and configuration, are answered in
32src/READ_ME and cf/README (found in the V8 sendmail distribution).
3055c3a0 33
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34This is also the official FAQ for the Usenet newsgroup
35comp.mail.sendmail.
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9ffbc9da 37======================================================================
924e1e40 38BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER
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39======================================================================
40
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41 * What do you wish everyone would do before sending you mail or
42 posting to comp.mail.sendmail?
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43
44 Read this FAQ completely. Read src/READ_ME and cf/README
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45 completely. Read the books written to help with common
46 problems such as compilation and installation, configuration,
47 security issues, etc.... Ask themselves if their question
48 hasn't already been answered.
49----------------------------------------------------------------------
50 * How can I be sure if this is the right place to look for answers
51 to my questions?
52
53 1. Do you know, for a fact, that the question is related to
b2f10127 54 sendmail V8?
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55
56 2. Do you know, for a fact, that the question is related to an
57 older version of sendmail?
58
59 3. Is the question about a sendmail-like program (e.g., Smail,
60 Zmailer, MMDF, etc...)?
61
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62 4. Is the question about an SMTP Gateway product for a LAN
63 mail package (e.g., cc:Mail, MS-Mail, WordPerfect
64 Office/GroupWise, etc...)?
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65
66 If you answered "yes" to the question #1, then this is the
67 right place.
68
69 If you answered "yes" to questions #2 or #3, then you should
70 seriously consider upgrading to the most recent version of
71 sendmail V8.
72
31e11046 73 For question #2, If you're going to continue using an older
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74 version of sendmail, you may not find much help and will
75 probably get some responses that amount to "Get V8".
76 Otherwise, this is probably the best place to look for
77 answers.
78
79 If you answered "yes" to question #3 and are not going to
80 upgrade to sendmail V8, then this is probably not the right
81 place to look.
82
83 If you answered "yes" to question #4, then this is almost
84 certainly not the right place to look.
85
86 For questions #3 and #4, try looking around elsewhere in the
87 "comp.mail.*" hierarchy for a more appropriate newsgroup.
88 For example, you might want to try posting to comp.mail.misc
89 or comp.mail.smail.
90
91 If you couldn't answer "yes" to any of the above questions,
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92 then you're DEFINITELY in the wrong place. For the sake of
93 your sanity and ego, not to mention avoiding the waste of
94 your time and ours, try asking your System or E-Mail
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95 Administrator(s) before you post any questions publicly.
96----------------------------------------------------------------------
97 * Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ?
98
99 It is included in the most recent Version 8 distribution of
100 sendmail (described below), as well as via anonymous FTP from
101 rtfm.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq.
102 If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can retrieve
103 it by sending email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the
104 command "send usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq" in the
105 message.
106----------------------------------------------------------------------
107 * I don't have access to Usenet news. Can I still get access to
108 comp.mail.sendmail?
109
110 Yes. Send email to mxt@dl.ac.uk with the command "sub
111 comp-news.comp.mail.sendmail <full-US-ordered-email-address>"
112 in the message.
113
114 E-mail you want posted on comp.mail.sendmail should be sent
115 to comp-mail-sendmail@dl.ac.uk
116----------------------------------------------------------------------
117 * I have sendmail-related DNS questions. Where should I ask them?
118
119 Depending on how deeply they get into the DNS, they can be
120 asked here. However, you'll probably be told that you should
121 send them to the Info-BIND mailing list (if the question is
122 specific to that program) or to the Usenet newsgroup
123 comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains (DNS in general).
21446efc 124----------------------------------------------------------------------
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125 * How do I subscribe to either of these?
126
127 For comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains, you have to be on Usenet.
128 They don't have a news-to-mail gateway yet.
129
130 For the Info-BIND mailing list, send email to
131 bind-request@uunet.uu.net with the command "subscribe" in the
132 message. Submissions should be sent to bind@uunet.uu.net
133
134======================================================================
135GENERAL QUESTIONS
136======================================================================
137
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138 * Where can I get Version 8?
139
140 Via anonymous FTP from FTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU in /ucb/sendmail.
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141----------------------------------------------------------------------
142 * What are the differences between Version 8 and other versions?
143
21446efc 144 See doc/changes/changes.me in the sendmail distribution.
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145----------------------------------------------------------------------
146 * What happened to sendmail 6.x and 7.x?
147
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148 When a new (Alpha/Beta) version of sendmail was released, it
149 was changed to Release 6. Development continued in that tree
150 until 4.4BSD was released, when everything on the 4.4 tape
151 was set to be version 8.1. Version 7.x never existed.
3055c3a0 152----------------------------------------------------------------------
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153 * What books are available describing sendmail?
154
155 There is one book available devoted to sendmail:
156
157 Costales, Allman, and Rickert, _Sendmail_. O'Reilly &
158 Associates.
159
160 Several books have sendmail chapters, for example:
161
162 Nemeth, Snyder, and Seebass, _Unix System Administration
163 Handbook_. Prentice-Hall.
164 Carl-Mitchell and Quarterman, _Practical Internetworking with
165 TCP/IP and UNIX_. Addison-Wesley.
166 Hunt, _TCP/IP Network Administration_. O'Reilly & Associates.
167
168 Another book about sendmail is due out "soon":
169
170 Avolio & Vixie, _Sendmail Theory and Practice_. Digital
171 Press (release date unknown).
172
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173 For details on sendmail-related DNS issues, consult:
174
175 Liu and Albitz, _DNS and BIND_. O'Reilly & Associates.
176
177 For details on UUCP, see:
178
179 O'Reilly and Todino, _Managing UUCP and Usenet_.
180 O'Reilly & Associates.
181
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182======================================================================
183COMPILING AND INSTALLING SENDMAIL 8
184======================================================================
185
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186 * Version 8 requires a new version of "make". Where can I get this?
187
188 Actually, Version 8 does not require a new version of "make".
189 It includes a collection of Makefiles for different architectures,
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190 only one or two of which require the new "make". For a supported
191 architecture, use ``sh makesendmail''. If you are porting to a
192 new architecture, start with Makefile.dist.
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193
194 If you really do want the new make, it is available on any of
21446efc 195 the BSD Net2 or 4.4-Lite distribution sites. These include:
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196
197 ftp.uu.net /systems/unix/bsd-sources
198 gatekeeper.dec.com /.0/BSD/net2
199 ucquais.cba.uc.edu /pub/net2
200 ftp.luth.se /pub/unix/4.3bsd/net2
201
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202 Diffs and instructions for building this version of make
203 under SunOS 4.1.x are available on ftp.css.itd.umich.edu in
204 /pub/systems/sun/Net2-make.sun4.diff.Z. A patchkit for
205 Ultrix is on ftp.vix.com in /pub/patches/pmake-for-ultrix.Z.
206 Patches for AIX 3.2.4 are available on ftp.uni-stuttgart.de
207 in /sw/src/patches/bsd-make-rus-patches.
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208
209 There is also a Linux version available on the main Linux
210 distribution sites as pmake; this version is included as
211 standard with the current Slackware distributions.
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212----------------------------------------------------------------------
213 * What macro package do I use to format the V8 man pages?
214
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215 The BSD group switched over the the ``mandoc'' macros for the
216 4.4 release. These include more hooks designed for hypertext
217 handling. However, new man pages won't format under the old
218 man macros. Fortunately, old man pages will format under the
219 new mandoc macros.
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221 Get the new macros with the BSD Net2 or 4.4-Lite release (see
222 above for locations; for example, on FTP.UU.NET the files
223 /system/unix/bsd-sources/share/tmac/me/strip/sed and
224 /system/unix/bsd-sources/share/tmac/* are what you need).
3055c3a0 225
924e1e40 226 This macro set is also included with newer versions of groff.
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227----------------------------------------------------------------------
228 * What modes should be used when installing sendmail?
229
230 The sendmail binary should be owned by root, mode 4755.
231 The queue directory should be owned by root, with a mode
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232 between 700 and 755. Under no circumstances should
233 it be group or other writable!
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234 The sendmail config file should be owned by root, mode 644.
235 The aliases file should generally be owned by one trusted
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236 user and writable only by that user, although it is
237 not unreasonable to have it group writable by a
238 "sysadmin" group. It should not be world writable.
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239 The aliases database files (aliases.db or aliases.{pag,dir}
240 depending on what database format you compile with)
241 should be owned by root, mode 644.
3055c3a0 242
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243======================================================================
244CONFIGURATION QUESTIONS
245======================================================================
21446efc 246
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247 * How do I make all my addresses appear to be from a single host?
248
249 Using the V8 configuration macros, use:
250
251 MASQUERADE_AS(my.dom.ain)
252
253 This will cause all addresses to be sent out as being from
254 the indicated domain.
255----------------------------------------------------------------------
256 * How do I rewrite my From: lines to read ``First_Last@My.Domain''?
257
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258 There are a couple of ways of doing this. This describes
259 using the "user database" code. This is still experimental,
260 and was intended for a different purpose -- however, it does
261 work with a bit of care. It does require that you have the
262 Berkeley "db" package installed (it won't work with DBM).
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263
264 First, create your input file. This should have lines like:
265
266 loginname:mailname First_Last
267 First_Last:maildrop loginname
268
269 Install it in (say) /etc/userdb. Create the database:
270
271 makemap btree /etc/userdb.db < /etc/userdb
272
273 You can then create a config file that uses this. You will
274 have to include the following in your .mc file:
275
276 define(confUSERDB_SPEC, /etc/userdb.db)
277 FEATURE(notsticky)
278----------------------------------------------------------------------
279 * So what was the user database feature intended for?
280
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281 The intent was to have all information for a given user
282 (where the user is the unique login name, not an inherently
283 non-unique full name) in one place. This would include phone
284 numbers, addresses, and so forth. The "maildrop" feature is
285 because Berkeley does not use a centralized mail server
286 (there are a number of reasons for this that are mostly
287 historic), and so we need to know where each user gets his or
288 her mail delivered -- i.e., the mail drop.
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289
290 We are in the process of setting up our environment so that
291 mail sent to an unqualified "name" goes to that person's
292 preferred maildrop; mail sent to "name@host" goes to that
293 host. The purpose of "FEATURE(notsticky)" is to cause
294 "name@host" to be looked up in the user database for delivery
295 to the maildrop.
296----------------------------------------------------------------------
297 * Why are you so hostile to using full names for e-mail addresses?
298
299 Because full names are not unique. For example, the computer
300 community has two Andy Tannenbaums and two Peter Deutsches.
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301 At one time, Bell Labs had two Stephen R. Bournes with
302 offices a few doors apart. You can create alternative
303 addresses (e.g., Stephen_R_Bourne_2), but that's even worse
304 -- which one of them has to have their name desecrated in
305 this way? And you can bet that one of them will get most of
306 the other person's e-mail.
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308 So called "full names" are just an attempt to create longer
309 versions of unique names. Rather that lulling people into a
310 sense of security, I'd rather that it be clear that these
311 handles are arbitrary. People should use good user agents
312 that have alias mappings so that they can attach arbitrary
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313 names for their personal use to those with whom they
314 correspond (such as the MH alias file).
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315
316 Even worse is fuzzy matching in e-mail -- this can make good
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317 addresses turn bad. For example, Eric Allman is currently
318 (to the best of our knowledge) the only ``Allman'' at
319 Berkeley, so mail sent to "Allman@Berkeley.EDU" should get to
320 him. But if another Allman ever appears, this address could
321 suddenly become ambiguous. He's been the only Allman at
322 Berkeley for over fifteen years -- to suddenly have this
323 "good address" bounce mail because it is ambiguous would be a
324 heinous wrong.
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326 Finger services should be as fuzzy as possible (within
327 reason, of course). Mail services should be unique.
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328----------------------------------------------------------------------
329 * Should I use a wildcard MX for my domain?
330
331 If at all possible, no.
332
333 Wildcard MX records have lots of semantic "gotcha"s. For
334 example, they will match a host "unknown.your.domain" -- if
335 you don't explicitly test for unknown hosts in your domain,
336 you will get "config error: mail loops back to myself"
337 errors.
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338
339 See RFCs 1535-1537 for more detail and other related (or
340 common) problems.
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341----------------------------------------------------------------------
342 * How can I get sendmail to process messages sent to an account and
343 send the results back to the originator?
344
345 This is a local mailer issue, not a sendmail issue.
346 Depending on what you're doing, look at procmail (mentioned
347 again below), ftpmail, or Majordomo.
348
349 Check your local archie server to see what machine(s) nearest
350 you have the most recent versions of these programs.
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351----------------------------------------------------------------------
352 * How can I get sendmail to deliver local mail to $HOME/.mail
353 instead of into /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail)?
354
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355 Again, this is a local mailer issue, not a sendmail issue.
356 Either modify your local mailer (source code will be
357 required) or change the program called in the "local" mailer
358 configuration description to be a new program that does this
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359 local delivery. One program that is capable of doing this is
360 "procmail", although there are probably many others as well.
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361
362 You might be interested in reading the paper ``HLFSD:
363 Delivering Email to your $HOME'' available in the Proceedings
364 of the USENIX System Administration (LISA VII) Conference
365 (November 1993). This is also available via public FTP from
366 ftp.cs.columbia.edu in /pub/hlfsd/{README.hlfsd,hlfsd.ps}.
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367----------------------------------------------------------------------
368 * I'm trying to to get my mail to go into queue only mode, and it
369 delivers the mail interactively anyway. (Or, I'm trying to use
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370 the "don't deliver to expensive mailer" flag, and it delivers the
371 mail interactively anyway.) I can see it does it: here's the
372 output of "sendmail -v foo@somehost" (or Mail -v or equivalent).
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373
374 The -v flag to sendmail (which is implied by the -v flag to
375 Mail and other programs in that family) tells sendmail to
376 watch the transaction. Since you have explicitly asked to
377 see what's going on, it assumes that you do not want to to
378 auto-queue, and turns that feature off. Remove the -v flag
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379 and use a "tail -f" of the log instead to see what's going
380 on.
9ffbc9da 381
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382 If you are trying to use the "don't deliver to expensive
383 mailer" flag (mailer flag "e"), be sure you also turn on
384 global option "c" -- otherwise it ignores the mailer flag.
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385----------------------------------------------------------------------
386 * There are four UUCP mailers listed in the configuration files.
387 Which one should I use?
388
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389 The choice is partly a matter of local preferences and what
390 is running at the other end of your UUCP connection. Unlike
391 good protocols that define what will go over the wire, UUCP
392 uses the policy that you should do what is right for the
393 other end; if they change, you have to change. This makes it
394 hard to do the right thing, and discourages people from
395 updating their software. In general, if you can avoid UUCP,
396 please do.
9ffbc9da 397
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398 If you can't avoid it, you'll have to find the version that
399 is closest to what the other end accepts. Following is a
400 summary of the UUCP mailers available.
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401
402 uucp-old (obsolete name: "uucp")
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403 This is the oldest, the worst (but the closest to UUCP) way
404 of sending messages across UUCP connections. It does
405 bangify everything and prepends $U (your UUCP name) to the
406 sender's address (which can already be a bang path
407 itself). It can only send to one address at a time, so it
408 spends a lot of time copying duplicates of messages. Avoid
409 this if at all possible.
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410
411 uucp-new (obsolete name: "suucp")
412 The same as above, except that it assumes that in one rmail
413 command you can specify several recipients. It still has a
414 lot of other problems.
415
416 uucp-dom
417 This UUCP mailer keeps everything as domain addresses.
418 Basically, it uses the SMTP mailer rewriting rules.
419
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420 Unfortunately, a lot of UUCP mailer transport agents
421 require bangified addresses in the envelope, although you
422 can use domain-based addresses in the message header. (The
423 envelope shows up as the From_ line on UNIX mail.) So....
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424
425 uucp-uudom
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426 This is a cross between uucp-new (for the envelope
427 addresses) and uucp-dom (for the header addresses). It
428 bangifies the envelope sender (From_ line in messages)
429 without adding the local hostname, unless there is no host
430 name on the address at all (e.g., "wolf") or the host
431 component is a UUCP host name instead of a domain name
432 ("somehost!wolf" instead of "some.dom.ain!wolf").
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433
434 Examples:
435
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436 We are on host grasp.insa-lyon.fr (UUCP host name "grasp").
437 The following summarizes the sender rewriting for various
438 mailers.
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439
440 Mailer sender rewriting in the envelope
441 ------ ------ -------------------------
442 uucp-{old,new} wolf grasp!wolf
443 uucp-dom wolf wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr
444 uucp-uudom wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!wolf
445
446 uucp-{old,new} wolf@fr.net grasp!fr.net!wolf
447 uucp-dom wolf@fr.net wolf@fr.net
448 uucp-uudom wolf@fr.net fr.net!wolf
449
450 uucp-{old,new} somehost!wolf grasp!somehost!wolf
451 uucp-dom somehost!wolf somehost!wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr
452 uucp-uudom somehost!wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!somehost!wolf
453
454======================================================================
455RESOLVING PROBLEMS
456======================================================================
457
458 * When I compile, I get "undefined symbol inet_aton" messages.
459
460 You've probably replaced your resolver with the version from
924e1e40 461 BIND 4.9.3. You need to compile with -l44bsd in order to get
9ffbc9da 462 the additional routines.
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463----------------------------------------------------------------------
464 * I'm getting "Local configuration error" messages, such as:
465
466 553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself
467 554 <user@domain.net>... Local configuration error
468
469 How can I solve this problem?
470
471 You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be
472 forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net)
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473 by using an MX record, but the relay machine doesn't
474 recognize itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to
475 /etc/sendmail.cw (if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or
476 add "Cw domain.net" to your configuration file.
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477
478 IMPORTANT: Be sure you kill and restart the sendmail daemon
479 after you change the configuration file (for ANY change in
480 the configuration, not just this one):
481
482 kill `head -1 /etc/sendmail.pid`
483 sh -c "`tail -1 /etc/sendmail.pid`"
484
485 NOTA BENE: kill -1 does not work!
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486----------------------------------------------------------------------
487 * When I use sendmail V8 with a Sun config file I get lines like:
488
489 /etc/sendmail.cf: line 273: replacement $3 out of bounds
490
491 the line in question reads:
492
493 R$*<@$%y>$* $1<@$2.LOCAL>$3 user@ether
494
495 what does this mean? How do I fix it?
496
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497 V8 doesn't recognize the Sun "$%y" syntax, so as far as it is
498 concerned, there is only a $1 and a $2 (but no $3) in this
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499 line. Read Rick McCarty's paper on "Converting Standard Sun
500 Config Files to Sendmail Version 8", in the contrib directory
501 (file "converting.sun.configs") on the sendmail distribution
502 for a full discussion of how to do this.
3055c3a0 503----------------------------------------------------------------------
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504 * When I use sendmail V8 on a Sun, I sometimes get lines like:
505
506 /etc/sendmail.cf: line 445: bad ruleset 96 (50 max)
507
508 what does this mean? How do I fix it?
509
510 You're somehow trying to start up the old Sun sendmail (or
511 sendmail.mx) with a sendmail V8 config file, which Sun's
512 sendmail doesn't like. Check your /etc/rc.local, any
513 procedures that have been created to stop and re-start the
514 sendmail processes, etc.... Make sure that you've switched
515 everything over to using the new sendmail. To keep this
516 problem from ever happening again, try the following:
517
518 mv /usr/lib/sendmail /usr/lib/sendmail.old
519 ln -s /usr/local/lib/sendmail.v8 /usr/lib/sendmail
520 mv /usr/lib/sendmail.mx /usr/lib/sendmail.mx.old
521 ln -s /usr/local/lib/sendmail.v8 /usr/lib/sendmail.mx
522 chmod 0000 /usr/lib/sendmail.old
523 chmod 0000 /usr/lib/sendmail.mx.old
524
525 Assuming you have installed sendmail V8 in /usr/local/lib.
526----------------------------------------------------------------------
527 * When I use sendmail V8 on an IBM RS/6000 running AIX, the system
528 resource controller always reports sendmail as "inoperative" even
529 though it is running. What's wrong?
530
531 IBM's system resource controller is one of their "value
532 added" features to AIX -- it's not a Unix standard. You'll
533 need to either redefine the subsystem to use signals (see
534 chssys(1)) or dump the entire subsystem and invoke sendmail
535 in /etc/rc.tcpip or some other boot script.
536----------------------------------------------------------------------
537 * When I use sendmail V8 on an Intel x86 machine running Linux, I
538 have some problems. Specifically, I have....
539
540 The current versions of Linux are generally considered to be
b2f10127 541 great for hobbyists and anyone else who wants to learn Unix
924e1e40 542 inside and out, or wants to always have something to do, or
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543 wants a machine for light-duty mostly personal use and not
544 high-volume multi-user purposes.
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545
546 However, for those who want a system that will just sit in
547 the background and work without a fuss handling thousands of
548 mail messages a day for lots of different users, it's not
549 (yet) stable enough to fit the bill.
550
551 Unfortunately, there are no known shareware/freeware
552 implementations of any operating system that provides the
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553 level of stability necessary to handle that kind of load
554 (i.e., there are no free lunches).
555
556 If you're wedded to the Intel x86 platform and want to run
557 sendmail, we suggest you look at commercial implementations
31e11046 558 of Unix such as Interactive, UnixWare, Solaris, or BSD/386
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559 (just a sample of the dozens of different versions of Unix
560 for Intel x86).
561
562 Of all known vendor supported versions of Unix for Intel x86,
563 BSDI's BSD/386 is least expensive and the only one known to
564 currently ship with sendmail V8 pre-installed. Since sendmail
565 V8 is continuing to be developed at UC Berkeley, and BSD/386
566 is a full BSD 4.4 implementation, this is obviously be the most
567 "native" sendmail V8 environment.
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568----------------------------------------------------------------------
569 * When I use sendmail on an Intel x86 machine running OS/2, I have
570 some problems. Specifically, I have....
571
572 The OS/2 port of sendmail is known to have left out huge
573 chunks of the code and functionality of even much older
574 versions of sendmail, in large part because the underlying OS
575 just doesn't have the necessary hooks to make it happen.
576 This port is so broken that we make no attempt to provide any
31e11046 577 kind of support for it. Try BSDI's BSD/386 instead.
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578----------------------------------------------------------------------
579 * I'm connected to the network via a SLIP/PPP link. Sometimes my
580 sendmail process hangs (although it looks like part of the
581 message has been transfered). Everything else works. What's
582 wrong?
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583
584 Most likely, the problem isn't sendmail at all, but the low
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585 level network connection. It's important that the MTU
586 (Maximum Transfer Unit) for the SLIP connection be set
587 properly at both ends. If they disagree, large packets will
588 be trashed and the connection will hang.
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589----------------------------------------------------------------------
590 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly I'm getting messages in my
591 syslog of the form "collect: I/O error on connection". What is
592 going wrong?
593
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594 Nothing. This is just a diagnosis of a condition that had
595 not been diagnosed before. If you are getting a lot of these
596 from a single host, there is probably some incompatibility
597 between 8.x and that host. If you get a lot of them in
598 general, you may have network problems that are causing
599 connections to get reset.
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600----------------------------------------------------------------------
601 * I just upgraded to 8.x and now when my users try to forward their
602 mail to a program they get an "illegal shell" message and their
603 mail is not delivered. What's wrong?
604
605 In order for people to be able to run a program from their
606 .forward file, 8.x insists that their shell (that is, the
607 shell listed for that user in the passwd entry) be a "valid"
608 shell, meaning a shell listed in /etc/shells. If /etc/shells
609 does not exist, a default list is used, typically consisting
610 of /bin/sh and /bin/csh.
611
612 This is to support environments that may have NFS-shared
613 directories mounted on machines on which users do not have
614 login permission. For example, many people make their
615 file server inaccessible for performance or security
616 reasons; although users have directories, their shell on
617 the server is /usr/local/etc/nologin or some such. If you
618 allowed them to run programs anyway you might as well let
619 them log in.
620
621 If you are willing to let users run programs from their
622 .forward file even though they cannot telnet or rsh in (as
623 might be reasonable if you run smrsh to control the list of
624 programs they can run) then add the line
625
626 /SENDMAIL/ANY/SHELL/
627
628 to /etc/shells. This must be typed exactly as indicated,
629 in caps, with the trailing slash. NOTA BENE: DO NOT
630 list /usr/local/etc/nologin in /etc/shells -- this will
631 open up other security problems.
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632----------------------------------------------------------------------
633 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly connections to the SMTP port
634 take a long time. What is going wrong?
635
924e1e40 636 It's probably something weird in your TCP implementation that
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637 makes the IDENT code act oddly. On most systems V8 tries to
638 do a ``callback'' to the connecting host to get a validated
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639 user name (see RFC 1413 for detail). If the connecting host
640 does not support such a service it will normally fail quickly
641 with "Connection refused", but certain kinds of packet
642 filters and certain TCP implementations just time out.
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643
644 To test this, set the IDENT timeout to zero using
645 ``OrIdent=0'' in the configuration file. This will
646 completely disable all use of the IDENT protocol.
647
648 Another possible problem is that you have your name server
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649 and/or resolver configured improperly. Make sure that all
650 "nameserver" entries in /etc/resolv.conf point to functional
651 servers. If you are running your own server make certain
652 that all the servers listed in your root cache (usually
653 called something like "/var/namedb/root.cache"; see your
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654 /etc/named.boot file to get your value) are up to date.
655 Either of these can cause long delays.
656----------------------------------------------------------------------
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657 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly I get errors such as ``unknown
658 mailer error 5 -- mail: options MUST PRECEDE recipients.'' What is
659 going wrong?
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660
661 You need OSTYPE(systype) in your .mc file -- otherwise the
662 configurations use a default that probably disagrees with
663 your local mail system. See cf/README for details.
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664----------------------------------------------------------------------
665 * Under V8, the "From " header gets mysteriously munged when I send
666 to an alias.
667
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668 ``It's not a bug, it's a feature.'' This happens when you
669 have a "owner-list" alias and you send to "list". V8
670 propagates the owner information into the envelope sender
671 field (which appears as the "From " header on UNIX mail or as
672 the Return-Path: header) so that downstream errors are
673 properly returned to the mailing list owner instead of to the
674 sender. In order to make this appear as sensible as possible
675 to end users, I recommend making the owner point to a
676 "request" address -- for example:
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677
678 list: :include:/path/name/list.list
679 owner-list: list-request
680 list-request: eric
681
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682 This will make message sent to "list" come out as being "From
683 list-request" instead of "From eric".
684----------------------------------------------------------------------
685 * I am trying to use MASQUERADE_AS (or the user database) to
686 rewrite from addresses, and although it works in the From: header
687 line, it doesn't work in the envelope (e.g., the "From " line).
688
689 Believe it or not, this is intentional. The interpretation
690 of the standards by the V8 development group was that this
691 was an inappropriate rewriting, and that if the rewriting
692 were incorrect at least the envelope would contain a valid
693 return address. Other people have since described scenarios
694 where the envelope cannot be correct without this rewriting,
695 so 8.7 will have an option to rewrite both header and
696 envelope.
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697----------------------------------------------------------------------
698 * I want to run Sendmail version 8 on my DEC system, but you don't
699 have MAIL11V3 support in sendmail. How do I handle this?
700
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701 Get Paul Vixie's reimplementation of the mail11 protocol from
702 gatekeeper.dec.com in /pub/DEC/gwtools.
703
704 Rumour has it that he will be fully integrating into sendmail
705 V8 what little is left of IDA sendmail that is not handled
706 (or handled as well) by V8. No additional information on
707 this project is currently available.
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708----------------------------------------------------------------------
709 * Messages seem to disappear from my queue unsent. When I look in
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710 the queue directory I see that they have been renamed from qf* to
711 Qf*, and sendmail doesn't see these.
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712
713 If you look closely you should find that the Qf files are
714 owned by users other than root. Since sendmail runs as root
715 it refuses to believe information in non-root-owned qf files,
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716 and it renames them to Qf to get them out of the way and make
717 it easy for you to find. The usual cause of this is
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718 twofold: first, you have the queue directory world writable
719 (which is probably a mistake -- this opens up other security
720 problems) and someone is calling sendmail with an "unsafe"
721 flag, usually a -o flag that sets an option that could
722 compromise security. When sendmail sees this it gives up
723 setuid root permissions.
724
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725 The usual solution is to not use the problematic flags. If
726 you must use them, you have to write a special queue
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727 directory and have them processed by the same uid that
728 submitted the job in the first place.
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31e11046 730@(#)FAQ 8.15 (Berkeley) %G%
924e1e40 731Send updates to sendmail@CS.Berkeley.EDU.