I built a mail server using this guide - lets call it ServerA http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-users-and-domains-with-postfix-courier-mysql-and-squirrelmail-fedora-14-x86_64
This is not my first postfix server build. This build was an "update", the previous incarnation of my mail server was old, both the hardware and software was very old! Believing in redundancy - I started a second mail server build (ServerB) - but life got in the way and I never finished it. When I got time again (now), I figured I may as well upgrade the OS - so it is fedora 15 now. No problem - I use the fedora 15 guide. http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-users-and-domains-with-postfix-courier-mysql-and-squirrelmail-fedora-15-x86_64 Of course I did not do every step, I copied buckets of config files over and took short cuts all over the place. And - you guessed it - now I have a problem. Not that there is any sign that my config copy is the issue. I can make the problem go away by installing the sendmail rpm. I hope that some guru here can point me straight. The 'interesting' config I have - on ServerA - fedora 14 [postfix-2.7.1-1.fc14.i686] - which works perfectly as I want it to - I have the pickup daemon commented out in master.cf. It appears to have been like this from my install. I can not remember doing this and since the previous mail server has died, I lost any notes that I may have made when building that server. On ServerB fedora 15 [postfix-2.8.2-2.fc15.i686] I had removed the sendmail rpm - because I was under the false impression ServerA had the sendmail rpm removed. So here finally the symptoms of my problem! If I send email from the command line on ServerB, the email ends up deferred. If I install the sendmail rpm and send and email from the command line - it works. All I have managed to confirm is that the mta ( /usr/sbin/sendmail ) changes with the install of sendmail. This is with sendmail rpm: /etc/postfix::## alternatives --display mta mta - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix - priority 30 slave mta-pam: /etc/pam.d/smtp.postfix slave mta-mailq: /usr/bin/mailq.postfix slave mta-newaliases: /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix slave mta-rmail: /usr/bin/rmail.postfix slave mta-sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail.postfix slave mta-mailqman: /usr/share/man/man1/mailq.postfix.1.gz slave mta-newaliasesman: /usr/share/man/man1/newaliases.postfix.1.gz slave mta-aliasesman: /usr/share/man/man5/aliases.postfix.5.gz slave mta-rmailman: (null) slave mta-sendmailman: /usr/share/man/man1/sendmail.postfix.1.gz /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail - priority 90 slave mta-pam: /etc/pam.d/smtp.sendmail slave mta-mailq: /usr/bin/mailq.sendmail slave mta-newaliases: /usr/bin/newaliases.sendmail slave mta-rmail: /usr/bin/rmail.sendmail slave mta-sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail.sendmail slave mta-mailqman: /usr/share/man/man1/mailq.sendmail.1.gz slave mta-newaliasesman: /usr/share/man/man1/newaliases.sendmail.1.gz slave mta-aliasesman: /usr/share/man/man5/aliases.sendmail.5.gz slave mta-rmailman: /usr/share/man/man8/rmail.sendmail.8.gz slave mta-sendmailman: /usr/share/man/man8/sendmail.sendmail.8.gz Current `best' version is /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail. So this much is reproducible - remember pickup is commented out in master.cf remove sendmail rpm. send email from commandline - no trace in maillog and mail goes into deferred queue. install sendmail rpm send email from commandline - pretty log entries in the maillog and mail goes out - no problem. remove sendmail rpm. send email from commandline - no trace in maillog and mail goes into deferred queue. And yes I did try and put pickup back, but then I have some sort of mail loop. I think tied to my custom content filter and it's configuration. I was hoping above sendmail rpm IN vs sendmail rpm OUT will be enough to get some ideas about where my problem may be without trying to explain my custom content filter. ( And yes it is quite likely it is the problem ... but a gal can hope! ) The easy answer is to keep sendmail rpm in ... duh! ... but I was trying to learn something from my pain. Needing the entire sendmail rpm installed just seems wrong on a philosophical level. Clearly the reason ServerA works is because it has the sendmail rpm installed. BUT WHY does that make it work. Please and Thanks ! -- Paddling wildly --- Penguin Five Toes
