SUMMARY: sendmail configuration problem

From: Pala Muralinath (pala@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Sep 12 1996 - 15:36:14 CDT


Hello Again,

Thanks to all those who replied. I did manage to find a way around for my
problem. Some of the replies did help me with my configuration.

Here's The summary I promised:

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

    From: "Colin J. Wynne" <cwynne@brutus.mts.jhu.edu>
    
    I have no idea if this is relevant, but I recall compiling some
    program, perhaps procmail, which complained about `fully qualified'
    etc. I needed to add a trailing dot to the name:

      mts.jhu.edu.

    to get it to work.

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

    From: Claus Assmann <ca@informatik.uni-kiel.de>

    Here is an excellent info from paul@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu
     (Paul Pomes - UofIllinois CSO):

    ! Here's a file I put together for local use that appears close to your
    ! situation. Comments welcome.
    !
    ! /pbp
    ! ====
    !
    ! How to Fix a Cranky SUN Mail System.
    !
    !
    ! 1) Kill the existing sendmail daemon process.
    !
    ! ps waux | grep sendmail
    ! kill <pid> where <pid> is the process id of the daemon.
    !
    ! 2) Replace the default sendmail executable with the SUN-supplied version
    ! that understands use of the DNS. Zap any frozen config file present.
    !
    ! cd /usr/lib
    ! cp sendmail sendmail.nomx
    ! chmod 755 sendmail.nomx
    ! cp sendmail.mx sendmail
    ! chmod 4511 sendmail
    ! rm -f /usr/lib/sendmail.fc /etc/sendmail.fc /etc/mail/sendmail.fc
    !
    ! 3) Establish a /etc/resolv.conf file to direct DNS queries to a server.
    ! The values of "domain" and the "nameserver" lines depends critically
    ! on where you are. At the University of Illinois the value of domain
    ! is typically your department or office name combined with "uiuc.edu".
    ! Long names, e.g., Personnel Services Office, are typically abbreviated
    ! (pso.uiuc.edu). Examples: math.uiuc.edu, life.uiuc.edu,
ncsa.uiuc.edu.
    !
    ! Some institutions have a one domain fits all name. An example of
    ! this is the US Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Engineering
    ! Research Lab locally known as US Army CERL. Army policy specifies
    ! that domain names must use their official acronym with the "army.mil"
    ! domain. So CERL's domain name is "cecer.army.mil". Adding a fourth
    ! domain to distinguish internal departments and divisions would have
    ! made the names overly long. Thus all CERL hosts are named
    ! foo.cecer.army.mil.
    !
    ! Selecting nameservers must be done in consultation with your local
    ! network expert. At the University of Illinois (and ONLY here please)
    ! the following values can be used. Let's repeat that - only University
    ! of Illinois hosts should be using our nameservers.
    !
    ! domain foo.uiuc.edu (replace foo with your official
domain)
    ! nameserver 128.174.5.59
    ! nameserver 128.174.5.50
    ! nameserver 128.174.5.58
    !
    ! At US Army CERL, use the following:
    !
    ! domain cecer.army.mil
    ! nameserver 129.229.20.254
    ! nameserver 129.229.1.5
    !
    ! N.B., SUN's resolver code is based on BIND v4.8.1 and suffers from
several
    ! problems. Chief among those is zero fault tolerance. If the first
listed
    ! nameserver is unreachable or dead, the resolver won't try any of the
    ! subsequently listed servers. Re-compiling both sendmail and
libresolv.a
    ! from modern sources is the only fix for this.
    !
    ! 4) Copy the "main" sendmail.cf base file to sendmail.cf.
    ! Under SUN-OS 4.X use
    !
    ! cp /usr/lib/sendmail.main.cf /etc/sendmail.cf
    !
    ! Under SUN-OS 5.X use
    !
    ! cd /etc/mail
    ! cp main.cf sendmail.cf
    !
    !
    ! Now that the base work has been done you have a choice: death or chi-chi.
    ! No, that's another sick joke. Let's stick to SUNs and retain what shreds
    ! of dignity we can. Onward.
    !
    ! The next set of steps involve changes to the sendmail.cf file. Invoke
the
    ! editor of your choice on /etc/sendmail.cf or /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.
    !
    ! 5) Change the value of the $j greeting macro. Macros are defined with
    ! lines beginning with 'D'. Thus the $j macro is defined on a line
    ! beginning with 'Dj'. Change sendmail.cf (nee main.cf) to look like
    !
    ! # my official hostname
    ! # You have two choices here. If you want the gateway machine to
identify
    ! # itself as the DOMAIN, use this line:
    ! #Dj$m
    ! # If you want the gateway machine to appear to be INSIDE the domain,
use:
    ! #Dj$w.$m
    ! # Unless you are using sendmail.mx (or have a fully-qualified
hostname), use:
    ! Dj$w
    !
    ! (Comment out the Dj$m entry and enable the Dj$w entry.)
    !
    ! 6) Select the proper mailer for forwarding to a smarter relay. In the
    ! case of a site connected to the Internet, this is the "ddn" mailer.
    ! Change to:
    !
    ! # major relay mailer - typical choice is "ddn" if you are on the
    ! # Defense Data Network (e.g. Arpanet or Milnet)
    ! #DMsmartuucp
    ! DMddn
    !
    ! 7) Select the smarter relay to handle messages to unknown destinations.
    ! This MUST be selected on a per-site basis.
    !
    ! At the University of Illinois *ONLY*
    !
    ! # major relay host: use the $M mailer to send mail to other domains
    ! DRux1.cso.uiuc.edu
    ! CRux1.cso.uiuc.edu
    !
    ! At the US Army CERL *ONLY*
    !
    ! # major relay host: use the $M mailer to send mail to other domains
    ! DRmax.cecer.army.mil
    ! CRmax.cecer.army.mil
    !
    ! 8) Configure your domain names. Replace the foo.bar.uiuc.edu names below
    ! with your host's FQDN.
    !
    ! #################################################
    ! #
    ! # General configuration information
    ! ...
    ! # Example: (bogus examples, ignore)
    ! # DmCS.Podunk.EDU
    ! # Cm cs cs.Podunk.EDU
    ! Dwfoo.bar.uiuc.edu
    ! Dmfoo.bar.uiuc.edu
    !
    ! 9) Change the ddn mailer rules in ruleset 0 according to the comments
there.
    ! Ruleset 0 is labelled by a line containing only "S0". About 40 lines
    ! further down are the following rulesets.
    !
    ! # Pass other valid names up the ladder to our forwarder
    ! #R$*<@$*.$=T>$* $#$M $@$R $:$1<@$2.$3>$4 user@domain.known
    !
    ! # Replace following with above to only forward "known" top-level
domains
    ! #R$*<@$*.$+>$* $#$M $@$R $:$1<@$2.$3>$4 user@any.domain
    !
    ! # if you are on the DDN, then comment-out both of the the lines above
    ! # and use the following instead:
    ! R$*<@$*.$+>$* $#ddn $@ $2.$3 $:$1<@$2.$3>$4 user@any.domain
    !
    ! Follow the comments and comment out the second rule that forwards
    ! only "known" domains and enable the following rule that uses the "ddn"
    ! mailer.
    !
    ! Write the sendmail.cf file back out and leave the editor. Now test the
    ! changes by using sendmail in test mode.
    !
    ! 10) Test address recognition. Invoke sendmail in address test mode:
    !
    ! /usr/lib/sendmail -bt
    !
    ! Run the following address forms through one at a time. The leading 0
    ! is the starting ruleset. Each address should resolve to "user" using
    ! the "local" mailer. Replace "foo" and "bar.uiuc.edu" with the name
    ! of your host and domain.
    !
    ! 0 user
    ! 0 user@foo
    ! 0 user@foo.bar.uiuc.edu
    !
    ! 11) Verify out-going addresses are correct. Use the -v option to
Berkeley
    ! mail to check that the return addresses are correct. If -v doesn't
    ! work with your mailer, use sendmail direct.
    !
    ! Mail -v nobody@ucbvax.berkeley.edu < /dev/null
    ! or
    ! /usr/lib/sendmail -v nobody@ucbvax.berkeley.edu < /dev/null
    [ucbvax.berkeley.edu does no longer exist, try something else,
    e.g., nobody@informatik.uni-kiel.de]
    !
    ! 12) Fire up sendmail in daemon mode.
    !
    ! /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q1h
    !
    ! 13) Test in-bound mail. From another host, verify that mail sent to a
    ! user that has no forwarding set up, either via /etc/aliases or
    ! .forward file, actually arrives. Telnet to the SMTP port and verify
    ! that the greeting message uses the fully qualified domain name.
    !
    ! telnet foo.bar.uiuc.edu 25
    !
    ! quit
    ! --
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
    From: Trevor Morrison <trevor@if.ssci.liv.ac.uk>
    
    Try the book, 'Sendmail'. (1993)
    by Costales, Allman and Rickert.
    Published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.
    Its available in UK at 24 pounds.
    It is very comprehensive.

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

    From: bern@TI.Uni-Trier.DE (Jochen Bern)

    I'ld guess that you have a Line in your sendmail.cf reading:

    Dj$w

    ("real" Hostname = Hostname as per the OS)
    which needs to be changed to:

    Dj$w.$D

    ("real" Hostname = OS Hostname . OS Domainname)

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

    From: Jeffrey Barber <jab@rock.anchorage.net>

    Join the club of sendmail problems :)

    Couple things:

    1. on your unix host, check the /etc/sendmail.cf file for =
    Drnnsp.eds.com. The Dr parameter says that outgoing mail not addressed =
    to my local system route thru .....

    2. on your unix host it looks like you do not have a FQN defined i.e =
    palam@mailbox.
            It should probably be something like palam@mailbox.ne.tpd.eds.com.
If =
    so try adding "domain ne.tpd.eds.com" to the /etc/resolv.conf file or =
    make sure your DNS server knows how to resolve the host name mailbox.

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

    From: Stuart Kendrick <sbk@fhcrc.org>

    A couple suggestions:

    sendmail -bt -d0.4
    should show you what sendmail thinks its fully-qualified name is.

    I use the following in my sendmail.cf file:
    # my official domain name
    # ... this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
    Dj$w.$m

    And I have my fully-qualified name listed first in /etc/inet/hosts, e.g.
    a.b.c.d machine.domain.org machine

    /etc/nsswitch.conf
    hosts: files dns

    There are other configurations which will work, of course.

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

Thanks.

--Muralinath Pala

***********************************************************
Muralinath Pala (516)232-5062
#180 vanderbilt Motor Pkwy palam@tpd.eds.com
Hauppauge, NY 11788
            _______________ __o
        _________________ -\<,
                        ......O/ O

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