1 Sendmail Version 8 2 Frequently Asked Questions 3 Version 8.3 of 04/14/94 4 5 6This FAQ is specific to Version 8 of sendmail. 7 8---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 * What are the differences between Version 8 and other versions? 10 11 See CHANGES-R5-R8 in the anonymous FTP directory. 12---------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 * What happened to sendmail 6.x and 7.x? 14 15 When I released a new version of sendmail, I changed it to 16 Release 6. Development continued in that tree until 4.4BSD 17 was released, when everything on the 4.4 tape was set to be 18 version 8.1. Version 7.x never existed. 19---------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 * Where can I get Version 8? 21 22 Via anonymous FTP from FTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU in /ucb/sendmail. 23---------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 * Version 8 requires a new version of "make". Where can I get this? 25 26 Actually, Version 8 does not require a new version of "make". 27 It includes a collection of Makefiles for different architectures, 28 only one or two of which require the new "make". If you are 29 porting to a new architecture, start with Makefile.dist. 30 31 If you really do want the new make, it is available on any of 32 the BSD Net2 distribution sites. These include: 33 34 ftp.uu.net /systems/unix/bsd-sources 35 gatekeeper.dec.com /.0/BSD/net2 36 ucquais.cba.uc.edu /pub/net2 37 ftp.luth.se /pub/unix/4.3bsd/net2 38 39 Diffs and instructions for building this version of make under 40 SunOS 4.1.x are available on ftp.css.itd.umich.edu in 41 /pub/systems/sun/Net2-make.sun4.diff.Z. 42---------------------------------------------------------------------- 43 * What macro package do I use to format the V8 man pages? 44 45 The BSD group switched over the the ``mandoc'' macros for 46 the 4.4 release. These include more hooks designed for 47 hypertext handling. However, new man pages won't format 48 under the old man macros. Fortunately, old man pages will 49 format under the new mandoc macros. 50 51 Get the new macros with the BSD Net2 release. 52 53 This macro set is also available with newer versions of groff. 54---------------------------------------------------------------------- 55 * What books are available describing sendmail? 56 57 There is one book available devoted to sendmail, and 58 several books that have sendmail chapters. 59 60 Nemeth, Snyder, and Seebass, _Unix System Administration 61 Handbook_. Prentice-Hall. 62 Carl-Mitchell and Quarterman, _Practical Internetworking with 63 TCP/IP and UNIX_. Addison-Wesley. 64 Hunt, _TCP/IP Network Administration_. O'Reilly & Associates. 65 Costales, Allman, and Rickert, _Sendmail_. O'Reilly & 66 Associates. 67 68 Another book is due out "soon": 69 70 Avolio & Vixie, _Sendmail Theory and Practice_. Digital 71 Press (release date unknown). 72---------------------------------------------------------------------- 73 * How do I make all my addresses appear to be from a single host? 74 75 Using the V8 configuration macros, use: 76 77 MASQUERADE_AS(my.dom.ain) 78 79 This will cause all addresses to be sent out as being from 80 the indicated domain. 81---------------------------------------------------------------------- 82 * How do I rewrite my From: lines to read ``First_Last@My.Domain''? 83 84 There are a couple of ways of doing this. This describes using 85 the "user database" code. This is still experimental, and was 86 intended for a different purpose -- however, it does work 87 with a bit of care. It does require that you have the Berkeley 88 "db" package installed (it won't work with DBM). 89 90 First, create your input file. This should have lines like: 91 92 loginname:mailname First_Last 93 First_Last:maildrop loginname 94 95 Install it in (say) /etc/userdb. Create the database: 96 97 makemap btree /etc/userdb.db < /etc/userdb 98 99 You can then create a config file that uses this. You will 100 have to include the following in your .mc file: 101 102 define(confUSERDB_SPEC, /etc/userdb.db) 103 FEATURE(notsticky) 104---------------------------------------------------------------------- 105 * So what was the user database feature intended for? 106 107 The intent was to have all information for a given user (where 108 the user is the unique login name, not an inherently non-unique 109 full name) in one place. This would include phone numbers, 110 addresses, and so forth. The "maildrop" feature is because 111 Berkeley does not use a centralized mail server (there are a 112 number of reasons for this that are mostly historic), and so 113 we need to know where each user gets his or her mail delivered -- 114 i.e., the mail drop. 115 116 We are in the process of setting up our environment so that 117 mail sent to an unqualified "name" goes to that person's 118 preferred maildrop; mail sent to "name@host" goes to that 119 host. The purpose of "FEATURE(notsticky)" is to cause 120 "name@host" to be looked up in the user database for delivery 121 to the maildrop. 122---------------------------------------------------------------------- 123 * Why are you so hostile to using full names for e-mail addresses? 124 125 Because full names are not unique. For example, the computer 126 community has two Andy Tannenbaums and two Peter Deutsches. 127 At one time, Bell Labs had two Stephen R. Bournes with offices 128 a few doors apart. You can create alternative addresses 129 (e.g., Stephen_R_Bourne_2), but that's even worse -- which 130 one of them has to have their name desecrated in this way? 131 And you can bet that they will get most of the other person's 132 email. 133 134 So called "full names" are just longer versions of unique 135 names. Rather that lulling people into a sense of security, 136 I'd rather that it be clear that these handles are arbitrary. 137 People should use good user agents that have alias mappings 138 so that they can attach arbitrary names for their personal 139 use to those with whom they correspond. 140 141 Even worse is fuzzy matching in e-mail -- this can make good 142 addresses turn bad. For example, I'm currently (to the best 143 of my knowledge) the only ``Allman'' at Berkeley, so mail 144 sent to "Allman@Berkeley.EDU" should get to me. But if 145 another Allman ever appears, this address could suddenly 146 become ambiguous. I've been the only Allman at Berkeley for 147 over fifteen years -- to suddenly have this "good address" 148 bounce mail because it is ambiguous would be a heinous wrong. 149 150 Finger services should be as fuzzy as possible. Mail services 151 should be unique. 152---------------------------------------------------------------------- 153 * When I use sendmail V8 with a Sun config file I get lines like: 154 155 /etc/sendmail.cf: line 273: replacement $3 out of bounds 156 157 the line in question reads: 158 159 R$*<@$%y>$* $1<@$2.LOCAL>$3 user@ether 160 161 what does this mean? How do I fix it? 162 163 V8 doesn't recognize the Sun "$%y" syntax, so as far as it 164 is concerned, there is only a $1 and a $2 (but no $3) in this 165 line. Read Rick McCarty's paper on "Converting Standard Sun 166 Config Files to Sendmail Version 8", in the contrib directory 167 (file "converting.sun.configs") on the sendmail distribution 168 for a full discussion of how to do this. 169---------------------------------------------------------------------- 170 * Should I use a wildcard MX for my domain? 171 172 If at all possible, no. 173 174 Wildcard MX records have lots of semantic "gotcha"s. For 175 example, they will match a host "unknown.your.domain" -- if 176 you don't explicitly test for unknown hosts in your domain, 177 you will get "config error: mail loops back to myself" 178 errors. 179---------------------------------------------------------------------- 180 * I'm connected to the network via a SLIP link. Sometimes my sendmail 181 process hangs (although it looks like part of the message has been 182 transfered). Everything else works. What's wrong? 183 184 Most likely, the problem isn't sendmail at all, but the low 185 level network connection. It's important that the MTU (Maximum 186 Transfer Unit) for the SLIP connection be set properly at both 187 ends. If they disagree, large packets will be trashed and 188 the connection will hang. 189---------------------------------------------------------------------- 190 * I just upgraded to 8.x and suddenly I'm getting messages in my 191 syslog of the form "collect: I/O error on connection". What is 192 going wrong? 193 194 Nothing. This is just a diagnosis of a condition that had 195 not been diagnosed before. If you are getting a lot of these 196 from a single host, there is probably some incompatibility 197 between 8.x and that host. If you get a lot of them in general, 198 you may have network problems that are causing connections to 199 get reset. 200---------------------------------------------------------------------- 201 * How can I get sendmail to deliver local mail to $HOME/.mail 202 instead of into /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail)? 203 204 This is a local mailer issue, not a sendmail issue. Either 205 modify your local mailer (source code will be required) or 206 change the program called in the "local" mailer configuration 207 description to be a new program that does this local delivery. 208 I understand that "procmail" works well, although I haven't 209 used it myself. 210 211 You might be interested in reading the paper ``HLFSD: Delivering 212 Email to your $HOME'' available in the Proceedings of the 213 USENIX System Administration (LISA VII) Conference (November 214 1993). This is also available via public FTP from 215 ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/pub/hlfsd/{README.hlfsd,hlfsd.ps}. 216---------------------------------------------------------------------- 217 * Under V8, the "From " header gets mysteriously munged when I send 218 to an alias. 219 220 ``It's not a bug, it's a feature.'' This happens when you have 221 a "owner-list" alias and you send to "list". V8 propogates the 222 owner information into the envelope sender field (which appears 223 as the "From " header on UNIX mail or as the Return-Path: header) 224 so that downstream errors are properly returned to the mailing 225 list owner instead of to the sender. In order to make this 226 appear as sensible as possible to end users, I recommend making 227 the owner point to a "request" address -- for example: 228 229 list: :include:/path/name/list.list 230 owner-list: list-request 231 list-request: eric 232 233 This will make message sent to "list" come out as being 234 "From list-request" instead of "From eric". 235---------------------------------------------------------------------- 236 * There are four UUCP mailers listed in the configuration files. 237 Which one should I use? 238 239 The choice is partly a matter of local preferences and what is 240 running at the other end of your UUCP connection. Unlike good 241 protocols that define what will go over the wire, UUCP uses 242 the policy that you should do what is right for the other end; 243 if they change, you have to change. This makes it hard to 244 do the right thing, and discourages people from updating their 245 software. In general, if you can avoid UUCP, please do. 246 247 If you can't avoid it, you'll have to find the version that is 248 closest to what the other end accepts. Following is a summary 249 of the UUCP mailers available. 250 251 uucp-old (obsolete name: "uucp") 252 This is the oldest, the worst (but the closest to UUCP) way of 253 sending messages accros UUCP connections. It does bangify 254 everything and prepends $U (your UUCP name) to the sender's 255 address (which can already be a bang path itself). It can 256 only send to one address at a time, so it spends a lot of 257 time copying duplicates of messages. Avoid this if at all 258 possible. 259 260 uucp-new (obsolete name: "suucp") 261 The same as above, except that it assumes that in one rmail 262 command you can specify several recipients. It still has a 263 lot of other problems. 264 265 uucp-dom 266 This UUCP mailer keeps everything as domain addresses. 267 Basically, it uses the SMTP mailer rewriting rules. 268 269 Unfortunately, a lot of UUCP mailer transport agents require 270 bangified addresses in the envelope, although you can use 271 domain-based addresses in the message header. (The envelope 272 shows up as the From_ line on UNIX mail.) So.... 273 274 uucp-uudom 275 This is a cross between uucp-new (for the envelope addresses) 276 and uucp-dom (for the header addresses). It bangifies the 277 envelope sender (From_ line in messages) without adding the 278 local hostname, unless there is no host name on the address 279 at all (e.g., "wolf") or the host component is a UUCP host name 280 instead of a domain name ("somehost!wolf" instead of 281 "some.dom.ain!wolf"). 282 283 Examples: 284 285 We are on host grasp.insa-lyon.fr (UUCP host name "grasp"). The 286 following summarizes the sender rewriting for various mailers. 287 288 Mailer sender rewriting in the envelope 289 ------ ------ ------------------------- 290 uucp-{old,new} wolf grasp!wolf 291 uucp-dom wolf wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr 292 uucp-uudom wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!wolf 293 294 uucp-{old,new} wolf@fr.net grasp!fr.net!wolf 295 uucp-dom wolf@fr.net wolf@fr.net 296 uucp-uudom wolf@fr.net fr.net!wolf 297 298 uucp-{old,new} somehost!wolf grasp!somehost!wolf 299 uucp-dom somehost!wolf somehost!wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr 300 uucp-uudom somehost!wolf grasp.insa-lyon.fr!somehost!wolf 301---------------------------------------------------------------------- 302 * I'm trying to to get my mail to go into queue only mode, and it 303 delivers the mail interactively anyway. (Or, I'm trying to use 304 the "don't deliver to expensive mailer" flag, and it doesn't 305 delivers the mail interactively anyway.) I can see it does it: 306 here's the output of "sendmail -v foo@somehost" (or Mail -v or 307 equivalent). 308 309 The -v flag to sendmail (which is implied by the -v flag to 310 Mail and other programs in that family) tells sendmail to 311 watch the transaction. Since you have explicitly asked to 312 see what's going on, it assumes that you do not want to to 313 auto-queue, and turns that feature off. Remove the -v flag 314 and use a "tail -f" of the log instead to see what's going on. 315 316 If you are trying to use the "don't deliver to expensive mailer" 317 flag (mailer flag "e"), be sure you also turn on global option 318 "c" -- otherwise it ignores the mailer flag. 319---------------------------------------------------------------------- 320 * I'm getting "Local configuration error" messages, such as: 321 322 553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself 323 554 <user@domain.net>... Local configuration error 324 325 How can I solve this problem? 326 327 You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be 328 forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net) 329 by using an MX record, but the relay machine doesn't recognize 330 itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to /etc/sendmail.cw 331 (if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add "Cw domain.net" 332 to your configuration file. 333---------------------------------------------------------------------- 334 * I want to run Sendmail version 8 on my DEC system, but you don't 335 have MAIL11V3 support in sendmail. How do I handle this? 336 337 Get Paul Vixie's reimplementation of the mail11 protocol 338 from gatekeeper.dec.com in /pub/DEC/gwtools. 339---------------------------------------------------------------------- 340