Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!shamash!tank!mimsy!haven!h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu!b.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu!fuhrman
From: fuhrman@b.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (Cris Fuhrman)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: I refuse to talk to myself?!?!
Message-ID: <214@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Date: 6 Jan 89 00:38:49 GMT
Sender: news@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu
Lines: 48

I recently posted a question to comp.sys.sun about setting up mail on a 
a cluster of 10 suns, and the replies I got were just the trick.  Local
mail works perfectly now.  Thanks for the help with your replies!

The problem that now exists has to deal with incoming mail.  It seems that
if I send a message to the mailhost sun (called suna or 
suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu) two things happen:

 1)  If mail is addressed to, say fuhrman@suna (from another machine
     with nameserver resolver capabilities), all works fine.

 2)  If mail is addressed to, say fuhrman@suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (fully
     specifying the hostname), the mail arrives at suna, but then 
     suna thinks that the address is foreign, and forwards the mail
     on to the MAJOR RELAY HOST in sendmail.cf (which happens to
     be itself) - et voila!  The following error message in mail from 
     MAILER-DAEMON:

     >>> HELO suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu
     <<< 553 suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu I refuse to talk to myself
     554 fuhrman@suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu... Service unavailable 

    I have tried changing the MAJOR RELAY HOST to be our VMS machine
    running CMU TCP/IP with nameserver.  All that happens here is that
    suna forwards the mail to the vax, and the vax sends it right back.
    The mail bounces about 15 times until both systems detect a loop
    and then it's canned - all because it doesn't recognize suna as
    being suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu.
 
Ok.  So I just want to know how sendmail resolves the equivalence of the
two names suna and suna.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu.  BTW, these two names _are_ on
the same line in /etc/hosts.  Also, the mailhost is also the loghost for
the yellow pages.  I have played and played with sendmail.cf.  What kind
of Black Magic is this and how can I get some info?  I have had compiler
classes before, and I think I'm capable of comprehending the syntax and/or
rewriting rules for the internet/uucp addresses.  I just don't know where
to look for info.

Please reply to the list or directly to manager@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu.  

All assistance would be *greatly* appreciated,

-Cris
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cris Fuhrman             | manager@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (129.71.12.1)  |
| Comp Sys Manager         | un020312@wvnvms.bitnet                     |
| G-40B Eng Science Bldg.  | "Just say NO to commercial file x-fers."   |
| WVU Morgantown, WV       |              - Kermit the Frog             |