On Mon, 17 May 1999, JF wrote:
>
> sendmail is driving me round the BEND!! I can't send mail!
>
LOL... Okay, let's see if I can help you out at all.
>
> > PINE is the easiest to use of the three, IMHO, and has many useful
> > features.
>
> YEah, I'm the most familiar with pine, and it seems the most capable of
> the character mode mailers.
>
It's my favorite email program, trust me ;).
>
> I've been agonizing over sendmail -- about 5 sources of documentation
> for 2 of the last 3 days. And I see why one writer called it the "black
> art" of unix!! DAMN!! I can't get anywhere with this!! I can't get any
> mail to send with pine or anything else. (I CAN use netscape no problem
> -- but I need to set up these char mode mailers for my office and will
> probably switch to it myself.)
>
> I'm not even sure that sendmail is my basic problem! :-X But it
> certainly is something I want to learn.
>
Alrighty -- what are you trying to configure sendmail to do? I'm
wondering... is this computer using a dial-up internet line, is it
permanently connected to the Internet...? Static or Dynamic IP? (It all
does make a difference! :-)
> > Make sure pine uses localhost as
> > the SMTP server, and you're done configuring. ;) It's not that hard, and
> > it's pretty darned efficient.
>
> Oh! Damn! I should've come back and read your e-mail again! I missed
> that! OKay -- I'll try that! Why didn't any of the documentation tell
> me that?!?
>
One of the things about using localhost as the SMTP server is that you
don't have to wait for Pine (or whatever other mail program that you use)
to transfer the mail to the server before you get back to the program. If
you use localhost, then what happens, is the program like Pine sends the
mail to sendmail on your computer. Sendmail then figures out how to route
the e-mail so that it gets to it's destination. Then it passes it to the
next computer. The next computer determines the route and then sends it.
It goes like that until the mail reaches the destination computer.
> Since I'm not (yet)(one thing at a time) setting up mail for other local
> users, will I need any aliases other than what are already in the
> aliases file? I'm using redhat 5.2 with sendmail 8.8.7-2 I think. I
> d/l'd 8.8.9-3 I think it is but it's not an rpm and I'm nore sure that's
> the solution to my problem. I've been desperately trying everything but
> all the while suspecting that the solution is simple and right in front
> of my nose and I can't find it!
>
There are two things that I'll say about this one: If you're using a
dial-up connection and a dynamic IP address, then you will not be able to
send mail from any system account other than the one whose username
matches the ISP login. Example, my ISP login name is mtrausch. So, on my
home computer, I have to use the mtrausch account to send mail. Doing
otherwise would allow them to presume that you're trying to mimick others
on the network, and that's a no-no.
However, if this computer is a computer that's permanently connected to
the Internet, has it's own domain and everything, then you can do whatever
the heck you want to. :^)
> > Fetchmail and procmail do NOT do the same thing. Fetchmail works with
> > sendmail which works with procmail. It's a chain. :)
>
> This I DID remember from your message and it was VERY helpful. This is
> the kind of general perspective I was missing. I successfully set up
> fetchmail -- no problem! :-) HAven't gotten into procmail yet. I hope
> I'm not doing this out of sequence but it seemed to me I really need
> sendmail. I explored for other alternatives and there don't seem to be
> any for console e-mail. sendmail seems to be IT. <?> I'm eager to
> demystify it but I'm not finding a good entry point yet. They all seem
> to start in the middle.
>
Well, IMHO, there is no "sequence" to configuring things. Tweak as you'd
like. :) One of the things is that sendmail is not for console mail.
It's for all electronic mail that passes through your computer system.
There are a few different jobs that sendmail does:
- When a user sends mail from pine or another UNIX client,
sendmail takes that mail and begins the transportation
process.
- Depending on your setup, either fetchmail, or a sendmail
from another machine sends a mail to the computer, and
the local sendmail then takes the mail, and gives it to
procmail. Procmail, by the way, is what's called the
"delivery agent," in other words, it finds the mailbox
that a mail message is supposed to go to. You can set
up procmail so that it rejects messages, forwards mess-
ages, or does whatever you want, basically.
- If your computer is permanently connected on the Internet,
and there are computers behind it on the network, then
sometimes, when another sendmail contacts your computer on
the Internet, your computer will look at the address and
say, "Hey... This mail is not for any of my users," and it
will look to pass the email on to another computer on your
network.
> be missing something really basic here as indicated by your advice to
> use localhost as the smtp server. (now that I'm in linux I can bypass
> my mailhost's smtp services to SEND and still use their
> myhostname@theirdomain as my reply to: / from: address?!?
Yes, you can. There is one line in /etc/sendmail.cf that you need to
change that needs to reflect the hostname of whatever mail system that you
are sending as. Take note, however, if you're sending from network A, and
you're using the address of network B, some spam filters may say, "Wait a
minute, this came from network A, but it says that it's from network B,"
and it may get confused and just plain reject it. Be careful how you set
it up.
> I see no option in pine to specify a different reply to address.
>
You can't. You can change the part after the @ sign if you'd like,
though.
> And in sendmail I see no place where I would supply a password for the
> smtp host. I don't need one?
>
No! SMTP doesn't use passwords!
> You can tell I'm sure that I'm really confused and missing something
> very basic.
>
That's quite alright. One of the things is that there is many levels of
things yet for you to leran. Just as long as you're patient about it, and
you're willing to learn, then you can do just about anything with Linux.
:-)
>
> Great idea and a beautiful thing that the formats are standard! :-)
>
One of the things about UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems is that
they're based on something called "open standards." Open standards help
to get the world on its feet and running. If we didn't have open
standards, we wouldn't have things like SMTP, the UNIX mailbox format, or
simple hardware protocols.
> > > And are these formats compatible with netscape --
> > > which I'm currently using for my own mail in imap mode (until I can get
> > > ftape or some type of backup working in linux).
> >
> > They're all compatable with everything. Linux uses standardized formats.
> > That's the beauty of it.
>
> Love it!
>
Gotta love it, eh? It sure does make things MANY times easier when you're
administering a system that isn't all that complicated. :-)
> > No, but you can ask questions and we can try to answer them :). That's
> > why we're here! ;)
>
> THANKS!!
>
No problem. It's called, don't be shy and ask a lot of questions. That's
the best way to learn things :-).
----------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Trausch
President of Linux Operations, ADK Computers
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ADK Computers, Walbridge Office E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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"Scattered showers my ass!" - Noah
