Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!crdgw1!barnett From: barnett@grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin Subject: Re: understaffing apparent due to mailer trouble Message-ID: Date: 19 Apr 91 13:33:01 GMT References: <280B6561.7A2@tct.com> <1991Apr19.022330.22141@csl.dl.nec.com> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Reply-To: barnett@crdgw1.ge.com Organization: GE Corp. R & D, Schenectady, NY Lines: 48 In-reply-to: ylee@csl.dl.nec.com's message of 19 Apr 91 02:23:30 GMT In article <1991Apr19.022330.22141@csl.dl.nec.com> ylee@csl.dl.nec.com (Ying-Da Lee) writes: >So it does cover all the varieties > you happened to mention. But you must be using the same version of sendmail on each machine. I am not going to support the sendmail binary on 100,000 different machines. Neither am I going to be responsible for each and every sendmail.cf out there. If not, I don't understand how you can use one sendmail.cf file for each of those machines. Sun, DEC, and HP have different sendmails with different features. DECNET mail, YP, name server support, etc. Here are some particulars that are different for HP/UX, Ultrix, and SunOS: HP/UX : OI - Option - for nameserver support $< - RHS - program() SunOS: OR - Option - NFS mounted spool partitions ${ - RHS - ypmap( , ) $=m - LHS - c_mydomain $=m - RHS - any_in_mydomainname $%y - LHS - any_in_etc_hosts $%? - LHS - any_in_map_? Ultrix: ${ - LHS ypalias() $" - LHS yppasswd() As you can see these variations determine how sendmail interfaces with the Name server, YP maps and /etc/hosts. The point is: the vendors have added features to their sendmail executable. The documentation tells people how to set up their machines. Using a single version of the executable and/or the configuration file means 1) "extra" features will go away unless I add them to the sendmail sources. 2) The burden of support falls on my shoulder for every machine. Maybe both of those points are acceptable to you. They are not to me. And I do mean 100,000 machines. Even the 700 machines in this site is too much, considering the two dozen different versions of Unix. -- Bruce G. Barnett barnett@crdgw1.ge.com uunet!crdgw1!barnett