1 Sendmail Version 8 2 Frequently Asked Questions 3 Version 8.8 of 11/10/94 4 5 6This FAQ is specific to Version 8 of sendmail. Other questions, 7particularly regarding compilation and configuration, are answered 8in src/READ_ME and cf/README (found in the V8 sendmail distribution). 9 10---------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 * What do you wish everyone would do before sending you mail? 12 13 Read this FAQ completely. Read src/READ_ME and cf/README 14 completely. Ask themselves if their question hasn't already 15 been answered. 16---------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 * Where can I get Version 8? 18 19 Via anonymous FTP from FTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU in /ucb/sendmail. 20---------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 * What are the differences between Version 8 and other versions? 22 23 See doc/changes/changes.me in the sendmail distribution. 24---------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 * What happened to sendmail 6.x and 7.x? 26 27 When I released a new (Alpha/Beta) version of sendmail, I changed 28 it to Release 6. Development continued in that tree until 4.4BSD 29 was released, when everything on the 4.4 tape was set to be 30 version 8.1. Version 7.x never existed. 31---------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 * Version 8 requires a new version of "make". Where can I get this? 33 34 Actually, Version 8 does not require a new version of "make". 35 It includes a collection of Makefiles for different architectures, 36 only one or two of which require the new "make". For a supported 37 architecture, use ``sh makesendmail''. If you are porting to a 38 new architecture, start with Makefile.dist. 39 40 If you really do want the new make, it is available on any of 41 the BSD Net2 or 4.4-Lite distribution sites. These include: 42 43 ftp.uu.net /systems/unix/bsd-sources 44 gatekeeper.dec.com /.0/BSD/net2 45 ucquais.cba.uc.edu /pub/net2 46 ftp.luth.se /pub/unix/4.3bsd/net2 47 48 Diffs and instructions for building this version of make under 49 SunOS 4.1.x are available on ftp.css.itd.umich.edu in 50 /pub/systems/sun/Net2-make.sun4.diff.Z. A patchkit for Ultrix 51 is on ftp.vix.com in /pub/patches/pmake-for-ultrix.Z. Patches 52 for AIX 3.2.4 are available on ftp.uni-stuttgart.de in 53 /sw/src/patches/bsd-make-rus-patches. 54 55 There is also a Linux version available on the main Linux 56 distribution sites as pmake; this version is included as 57 standard with the current Slackware distributions. 58---------------------------------------------------------------------- 59 * What macro package do I use to format the V8 man pages? 60 61 The BSD group switched over the the ``mandoc'' macros for 62 the 4.4 release. These include more hooks designed for 63 hypertext handling. However, new man pages won't format 64 under the old man macros. Fortunately, old man pages will 65 format under the new mandoc macros. 66 67 Get the new macros with the BSD Net2 or 4.4-Lite release 68 (see above). 69 70 This macro set is also available with newer versions of groff. 71---------------------------------------------------------------------- 72 * What books are available describing sendmail? 73 74 There is one book available devoted to sendmail: 75 76 Costales, Allman, and Rickert, _Sendmail_. O'Reilly & 77 Associates. 78 79 Several books have sendmail chapters, for example: 80 81 Nemeth, Snyder, and Seebass, _Unix System Administration 82 Handbook_. Prentice-Hall. 83 Carl-Mitchell and Quarterman, _Practical Internetworking with 84 TCP/IP and UNIX_. Addison-Wesley. 85 Hunt, _TCP/IP Network Administration_. O'Reilly & Associates. 86 87 Another book about sendmail is due out "soon": 88 89 Avolio & Vixie, _Sendmail Theory and Practice_. Digital 90 Press (release date unknown). 91---------------------------------------------------------------------- 92 * How do I make all my addresses appear to be from a single host? 93 94 Using the V8 configuration macros, use: 95 96 MASQUERADE_AS(my.dom.ain) 97 98 This will cause all addresses to be sent out as being from 99 the indicated domain. 100---------------------------------------------------------------------- 101 * How do I rewrite my From: lines to read ``First_Last@My.Domain''? 102 103 There are a couple of ways of doing this. This describes using 104 the "user database" code. This is still experimental, and was 105 intended for a different purpose -- however, it does work 106 with a bit of care. It does require that you have the Berkeley 107 "db" package installed (it won't work with DBM). 108 109 First, create your input file. This should have lines like: 110 111 loginname:mailname First_Last 112 First_Last:maildrop loginname 113 114 Install it in (say) /etc/userdb. Create the database: 115 116 makemap btree /etc/userdb.db < /etc/userdb 117 118 You can then create a config file that uses this. You will 119 have to include the following in your .mc file: 120 121 define(confUSERDB_SPEC, /etc/userdb.db) 122 FEATURE(notsticky) 123---------------------------------------------------------------------- 124 * So what was the user database feature intended for? 125 126 The intent was to have all information for a given user (where 127 the user is the unique login name, not an inherently non-unique 128 full name) in one place. This would include phone numbers, 129 addresses, and so forth. The "maildrop" feature is because 130 Berkeley does not use a centralized mail server (there are a 131 number of reasons for this that are mostly historic), and so 132 we need to know where each user gets his or her mail delivered -- 133 i.e., the mail drop. 134 135 We are in the process of setting up our environment so that 136 mail sent to an unqualified "name" goes to that person's 137 preferred maildrop; mail sent to "name@host" goes to that 138 host. The purpose of "FEATURE(notsticky)" is to cause 139 "name@host" to be looked up in the user database for delivery 140 to the maildrop. 141---------------------------------------------------------------------- 142 * Why are you so hostile to using full names for e-mail addresses? 143 144 Because full names are not unique. For example, the computer 145 community has two Andy Tannenbaums and two Peter Deutsches. 146 At one time, Bell Labs had two Stephen R. Bournes with offices 147 a few doors apart. You can create alternative addresses 148 (e.g., Stephen_R_Bourne_2), but that's even worse -- which 149 one of them has to have their name desecrated in this way? 150 And you can bet that one of them will get most of the other 151 person's e-mail. 152 153 So called "full names" are just an attempt to create longer 154 versions of unique names. Rather that lulling people into a 155 sense of security, I'd rather that it be clear that these 156 handles are arbitrary. People should use good user agents 157 that have alias mappings so that they can attach arbitrary 158 names for their personal use to those with whom they correspond 159 (such as the MH alias file). 160 161 Even worse is fuzzy matching in e-mail -- this can make good 162 addresses turn bad. For example, I'm currently (to the best 163 of my knowledge) the only ``Allman'' at Berkeley, so mail 164 sent to "Allman@Berkeley.EDU" should get to me. But if 165 another Allman ever appears, this address could suddenly 166 become ambiguous. I've been the only Allman at Berkeley for 167 over fifteen years -- to suddenly have this "good address" 168 bounce mail because it is ambiguous would be a heinous wrong. 169 170 Finger services should be as fuzzy as possible (within 171 reason, of course). Mail services should be unique. 172---------------------------------------------------------------------- 173 * I'm getting "Local configuration error" messages, such as: 174 175 553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself 176 554 <user@domain.net>... Local configuration error 177 178 How can I solve this problem? 179 180 You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be 181 forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net) 182 by using an MX record, but the relay machine doesn't recognize 183 itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to /etc/sendmail.cw 184 (if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add "Cw domain.net" 185 to your configuration file. 186 187 IMPORTANT: Be sure you kill and restart the sendmail daemon 188 after you change the configuration file (for ANY change in 189 the configuration, not just this one): 190 191 kill `head -1 /etc/sendmail.pid` 192 sh -c "`tail -1 /etc/sendmail.pid`" 193 194 NOTA BENE: kill -1 does not work! 195---------------------------------------------------------------------- 196 * OK, I did that, and the problem still occurs. 197 198 You probably forgot to to resta 199---------------------------------------------------------------------- 200 * When I use sendmail V8 with a Sun config file I get lines like: 201 202 /etc/sendmail.cf: line 273: replacement $3 out of bounds 203 204 the line in question reads: 205 206 R$*<@$%y>$* $1<@$2.LOCAL>$3 user@ether 207 208 what does this mean? How do I fix it? 209 210 V8 doesn't recognize the Sun "$%y" syntax, so as far as it 211 is concerned, there is only a $1 and a $2 (but no $3) in this 212 line. Read Rick McCarty's paper on "Converting Standard Sun 213 Config Files to Sendmail Version 8", in the contrib directory 214 (file "converting.sun.configs") on the sendmail distribution 215 for a full discussion of how to do this. 216---------------------------------------------------------------------- 217 * Should I use a wildcard MX for my domain? 218 219 If at all possible, no. 220 221 Wildcard MX records have lots of semantic "gotcha"s. For 222 example, they will match a host "unknown.your.domain" -- if 223 you don't explicitly test for unknown hosts in your domain, 224 you will get "config error: mail loops back to myself" 225 errors. 226---------------------------------------------------------------------- 227 * I'm connected to the network via a SLIP link. Sometimes my sendmail 228 process hangs (although it looks like part of the message has been 229 transfered). Everything else works. What's wrong? 230 231 Most likely, the problem isn't sendmail at all, but the low 232 level network connection. It's important that the MTU (Maximum 233 Transfer Unit) for the SLIP connection be set properly at both 234 ends. If they disagree, large packets will be trashed and 235 the connection will hang. 236---------------------------------------------------------------------- 237 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly I'm getting messages in my 238 syslog of the form "collect: I/O error on connection". What is 239 going wrong? 240 241 Nothing. This is just a diagnosis of a condition that had 242 not been diagnosed before. If you are getting a lot of these 243 from a single host, there is probably some incompatibility 244 between 8.x and that host. If you get a lot of them in general, 245 you may have network problems that are causing connections to 246 get reset. 247---------------------------------------------------------------------- 248 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly connections to the SMTP port 249 take a long time. What is going wrong? 250 251 It's probably something wierd in your TCP implementation that 252 makes the IDENT code act oddly. On most systems V8 tries to 253 do a ``callback'' to the connecting host to get a validated 254 user name (see RFC 1413 for details). If the connecting 255 host does not support such a service it will normally fail 256 quickly with "Connection refused", but certain kinds of 257 packet filters and certain TCP implementations just time out. 258 259 To test this, set the IDENT timeout to zero using 260 ``OrIdent=0'' in the configuration file. This will 261 completely disable all use of the IDENT protocol. 262 263 Another possible problem is that you have your name server 264 and/or resolver configured improperly. Make sure that 265 all "nameserver" entries in /etc/resolv.conf point to functional 266 servers. If you are running your own server make certain that 267 all the servers listed in your root cache (usually called 268 something like "/var/namedb/root.cache"; see your 269 /etc/named.boot file to get your value) are up to date. 270 Either of these can cause long delays. 271---------------------------------------------------------------------- 272 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly I get errors such as ``mail: 273 options must follow recipients.'' What is going wrong? 274 275 You need OSTYPE(systype) in your .mc file -- otherwise the 276 configurations use a default that probably disagrees with 277 your local mail system. See cf/README for details. 278---------------------------------------------------------------------- 279 * How can I get sendmail to deliver local mail to $HOME/.mail 280 instead of into /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail)? 281 282 This is a local mailer issue, not a sendmail issue. Either 283 modify your local mailer (source code will be required) or 284 change the program called in the "local" mailer configuration 285 description to be a new program that does this local delivery. 286 I understand that "procmail" works well, although I haven't 287 used it myself. 288 289 You might be interested in reading the paper ``HLFSD: Delivering 290 Email to your $HOME'' available in the Proceedings of the 291 USENIX System Administration (LISA VII) Conference (November 292 1993). This is also available via public FTP from 293 ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/pub/hlfsd/{README.hlfsd,hlfsd.ps}. 294---------------------------------------------------------------------- 295 * Under V8, the "From " header gets mysteriously munged when I send 296 to an alias. 297 298 ``It's not a bug, it's a feature.'' This happens when you have 299 a "owner-list" alias and you send to "list". V8 propogates the 300 owner information into the envelope sender field (which appears 301 as the "From " header on UNIX mail or as the Return-Path: header) 302 so that downstream errors are properly returned to the mailing 303 list owner instead of to the sender. In order to make this 304 appear as sensible as possible to end users, I recommend making 305 the owner point to a "request" address -- for example: 306 307 list: :include:/path/name/list.list 308 owner-list: list-request 309 list-request: eric 310 311 This will make message sent to "list" come out as being 312 "From list-request" instead of "From eric". 313---------------------------------------------------------------------- 314 * There are four UUCP mailers listed in the configuration files. 315 Which one should I use? 316 317 The choice is partly a matter of local preferences and what is 318 running at the other end of your UUCP connection. Unlike good 319 protocols that define what will go over the wire, UUCP uses 320 the policy that you should do what is right for the other end; 321 if they change, you have to change. This makes it hard to 322 do the right thing, and discourages people from updating their 323 software. In general, if you can avoid UUCP, please do. 324 325 If you can't avoid it, you'll have to find the version that is 326 closest to what the other end accepts. Following is a summary 327 of the UUCP mailers available. 328 329 uucp-old (obsolete name: "uucp") 330 This is the oldest, the worst (but the closest to UUCP) way of 331 sending messages accros UUCP connections. It does bangify 332 everything and prepends $U (your UUCP name) to the sender's 333 address (which can already be a bang path itself). It can 334 only send to one address at a time, so it spends a lot of 335 time copying duplicates of messages. Avoid this if at all 336 possible. 337 338 uucp-new (obsolete name: "suucp") 339 The same as above, except that it assumes that in one rmail 340 command you can specify several recipients. It still has a 341 lot of other problems. 342 343 uucp-dom 344 This UUCP mailer keeps everything as domain addresses. 345 Basically, it uses the SMTP mailer rewriting rules. 346 347 Unfortunately, a lot of UUCP mailer transport agents require 348 bangified addresses in the envelope, although you can use 349 domain-based addresses in the message header. (The envelope 350 shows up as the From_ line on UNIX mail.) So.... 351 352 uucp-uudom 353 This is a cross between uucp-new (for the envelope addresses) 354 and uucp-dom (for the header addresses). It bangifies the 355 envelope sender (From_ line in messages) without adding the 356 local hostname, unless there is no host name on the address 357 at all (e.g., "wolf") or the host component is a UUCP host name 358 instead of a domain name ("somehost!wolf" instead of 359 "some.dom.ain!wolf"). 360 361 Examples: 362 363 We are on host grasp.insa-lyon.fr (UUCP host name "grasp"). The 364 following summarizes the sender rewriting for various mailers. 365 366 Mailer sender rewriting in the envelope 367 ------ ------ ------------------------- 368 uucp-{old,new} wolf grasp!wolf 369 uucp-dom wolf wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr 370 uucp-uudom wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!wolf 371 372 uucp-{old,new} wolf@fr.net grasp!fr.net!wolf 373 uucp-dom wolf@fr.net wolf@fr.net 374 uucp-uudom wolf@fr.net fr.net!wolf 375 376 uucp-{old,new} somehost!wolf grasp!somehost!wolf 377 uucp-dom somehost!wolf somehost!wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr 378 uucp-uudom somehost!wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!somehost!wolf 379---------------------------------------------------------------------- 380 * I'm trying to to get my mail to go into queue only mode, and it 381 delivers the mail interactively anyway. (Or, I'm trying to use 382 the "don't deliver to expensive mailer" flag, and it doesn't 383 delivers the mail interactively anyway.) I can see it does it: 384 here's the output of "sendmail -v foo@somehost" (or Mail -v or 385 equivalent). 386 387 The -v flag to sendmail (which is implied by the -v flag to 388 Mail and other programs in that family) tells sendmail to 389 watch the transaction. Since you have explicitly asked to 390 see what's going on, it assumes that you do not want to to 391 auto-queue, and turns that feature off. Remove the -v flag 392 and use a "tail -f" of the log instead to see what's going on. 393 394 If you are trying to use the "don't deliver to expensive mailer" 395 flag (mailer flag "e"), be sure you also turn on global option 396 "c" -- otherwise it ignores the mailer flag. 397---------------------------------------------------------------------- 398 * I want to run Sendmail version 8 on my DEC system, but you don't 399 have MAIL11V3 support in sendmail. How do I handle this? 400 401 Get Paul Vixie's reimplementation of the mail11 protocol 402 from gatekeeper.dec.com in /pub/DEC/gwtools. 403---------------------------------------------------------------------- 404