JBeck> ... sendmail ... does have knowledge of DNS APIs (beyond getXbyY) and JBeck> does call them directly (e.g., to look up MX records, which are DNS JBeck> only), but if "dns" is not listed as a method on the "hosts:" line in JBeck> nsswitch.conf, then sendmail does not use DNS at all.
James> OK. I really meant that it bypasses the switch mechanism itself, not James> that it violates anything about configured policy. I figured that was what you meant, but just wanted be clear about the above. And sendmail only partially bypasses the switch: it also does various getXbyY calls, and those follow the switch. James> Like the others, it's not clear to me if "name service online" is James> either necessary or sufficient for sendmail. I hear ya. Even worse, sendmail needs to run even for mail to be delivered on a stand-alone box: it is used for both sending mail over the Internet (per the man page) *and* for sending mail locally. I believe SMF has a dependency notation for this (optional_all?), but I never seem to get my head wrapped far enough around SMF notation for it to sink in and stay. -- John
