SUMMARY: sendmail -bz problem

From: Earl Zmijewski (earl@cayuga.cs.jmu.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 04 1993 - 09:41:16 CDT


Original Problem:
----------------

> Hi all. I'm having a problem with frozen configuration files for
> sendmail. Here's the story. We have a Sparc ELC named hildegard
> running 4.1.2 that had a properly set up /etc/sendmail.cf file,
> but no corresponding /etc/sendmail.fc file (the frozen version).
> I created the frozen file with "sendmail -bz" and rebooted the
> machine. After that, it refused ALL incoming mail with a "User
> unknown" error. If you remove the frozen file and reboot, all is
> well again.

Thanks to all who responded. The easy solution, i.e., not creating
the frozen configuration file in the first place, seems to be the
best. Here are two typical replies ...

Calum Mackay <calum.mackay@mrc-biostatistics.cambridge.ac.uk> writes:

We too had exactly this problem, and a Sun engineer strongly recommended
*not* using the frozen configuration file, since that part of the
sendmail code is "full of holes", and can cause no end of problems. It is
such a problem that the code was not ported to SunOS 5.x so the frozen
config file option is not available there!

eric@mastodon.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Allman) writes:

When frozen configurations originally went in, the structure of the
system was relatively simple, processors were slow, and I/O systems
were relatively fast. None of these statements remain true in most
cases. For example, there are a dozen known problems with shared
libraries, cached file descriptors, and so forth.
 
Just don't use frozen configurations. It's the right thing to do.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you really want to use frozen configuration files, there are apparently
two solutions, which lots of you suggested. Here are two typical replies ...

todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff) writes

Yes, this is a known problem under 4.1.2 (and maybe 4.1.3, I'm not sure).
If the sendmail.fc file exists you must start sendmail after ldconfig
has been run. Either remove the sendmail.fc or edit rc.local to start
sendmail after ldconfig.

Dave Brent <brent@ucs.ubc.ca> writes

This is a known problem. I believe that the sendmail jumbo patch (100377-05)
is the number we have fixes this problem. The other solution is to run
without the frozen configuration file.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many thanks to ...

Stefan Mochnacki <stefan@centaur.astro.utoronto.ca>
"Jim Davis" <jdavis@cs.arizona.edu>
blymn@mulga.awadi.com.AU (Brett Lymn)
David Lee <T.D.Lee@durham.ac.uk>
eckhard@ts.go.dlr.de (Eckhard Rueggeberg)
peter@postman.essex.ac.uk
Calum Mackay <calum.mackay@mrc-biostatistics.cambridge.ac.uk>
thomas@wiwi.hu-berlin.de (Thomas Koetter)
tkevans@eplrx7.es.duPont.com (Tim Evans)
John Hasley<hasley@andy.bgsu.edu>
cook@lams.msd.lmsc.lockheed.com (M. L. Cook)
plord@pioneer.uspto.gov (Paul Lord)
seeger@reef.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III)
todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff)
feldt@phyast.nhn.uoknor.edu (Andy Feldt)
mgastel@gumby.for.gov.bc.ca (Mark Gastel)
phil@compnews.co.uk (Phil Male)
Steve Hanson <hanson@pogo.fnal.gov>
Dave Brent <brent@ucs.ubc.ca>
david@staff.udc.upenn.edu (R. David Murray)
Neil W Rickert <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
brian_katzung@lisle.swissbank.com (Brian Katzung)
mike@trdlnk.chi.il.us (Michael Sullivan)
glenn@uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
paul@classic2.cwc.com (Paul McDonald)
kuhn@math.harvard.edu (Robert M. Kuhn)
Ted Rodriguez-Bell <ted@ssl.Berkeley.EDU>
long-morrow@CS.YALE.EDU (H Morrow Long)
kensmith@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Ken Smith)



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