Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!RICHTER.MIT.EDU!krowitz
From: krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re:  mail
Message-ID: <8906021616.AA02345@richter.mit.edu>
Date: 2 Jun 89 16:16:38 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 49

The sendmail.cf file is, as you said, formidable.
There are very few people who can understand the cryptic
format of the file. Most of us (myself included) use
an existing file we borrowed from someone else and then
modified for our particular site.

1) make certain that the file /usr/lib/sendmail.fc (".fc", not
   ".cf") has been deleted. This is the "frozen" mail configuration
   file. If it exists, the mailer will use it instead of the
   /usr/lib/sendmail.cf file.

2) edit the /usr/lib/sendmail.cf file and put in your site specific
   info at the top. I will send you a copy of my file in a seperate
   message. I borrowed this file from someone else, who got it from
   yet another person. The sendmail file I have looks in /etc/hosts
   for the host name and tries to send the message directly. If it
   can't find the hostname there, it relays the message to another
   machine (which *must* be in /etc/hosts) who has a more complete
   host table. The name of the forwarding machine is defined near
   the top of the file. There is also a seperate definition for a
   UUCP mail forwarding host, if you need one. The only problem I
   have found with this sendmail.cf file is that it does not
   recognize names of the form "host.subdomain.domain" even though
   they are in the /etc/hosts file and it forwards the message to
   the forwarding machine rather than sending it directly (eg. my
   /etc/hosts files contains both "richter" and "richter.mit.edu",
   but the sendmail.cf file I'm sending you will only recognize
   "richter" as a machine that it can send mail to directly. It
   will send mail for "richter.mit.edu" to the forwarding machine
   -- which fortunately, will send the mail to the correct host).

    I am looking for the fix to this problem. In the meantime, I
   hope this file will work for you.

3) You can create a new "frozen" configuration file by using the
   command /usr/lib/sendmail -bz to read the ".cf" file and create
   a new ".fc" file. The mailer is supposed to run faster using
   the ".fc" file, but you have to remember to re-freeze the
   configuration file after every time you edit the ".cf" file.



 -- David Krowitz

krowitz@richter.mit.edu   (18.83.0.109)
krowitz%richter@eddie.mit.edu
krowitz%richter@athena.mit.edu
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet
(in order of decreasing preference)