Re: Send local mail - how? - AHAH!!!

From: prg (rdgentry1_at_cablelynx.com)
Date: 01/25/05 

Date: 24 Jan 2005 21:33:19 -0800

Charles Sullivan wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:40:25 -0800, prg wrote:
> >
> > Peter was correct in his 01/19 post (his first post!)...
> > "
> > (to me it sounds like the machines ***sendmails are not configured
to
> > accept incoming mail from anywhere but themselves*** or some idea
> > of a local domain)
> > " emphasis added
> >
> > Much of this could have been avoided had you read the RH9 Reference
> > Guide.
>
> FYI, I did read it - just didn't understand it. And what I did
> understand was misleading.

Good to hear that you've read it but not so good (and not unusual) that
you did not understand it. Now there is some common ground to work
from.

[snip]
>
> Local meaning localhost or localdomain? The former wasn't the
> problem, and a fix _is_ necessary for the latter if you don't
> want to go through the ISP's server.

There is no such thing in the outside world, in fact, as "localdomain"
ie., localhost.localdomain, as you will find in RH networking files.
It's a RH hack. In network speak "local" can have a couple of meanings
that context makes clear (right?). Here, "local" network as opposed to
"remote" network.

Not sure why you don't want to go through the ISP's mailer -- perhaps
they would not accept it, anyway -- but the fix for forwarding local,
intranet mail to another local, intranet mailer is what is presented in
the docs.

It assumes that the reason you would do this is that you have a single
mail gateway for the local network. You seem to want to forward mail
from one local, intranet host to another local, intranet host.
Therefore, the receiving host must be set up to _listen_ for
"unsolicited" mail from a host other than 127.0.0.1 (localhost -- or as
RH would say, localhost.localdomain).

[snip]
>
> I already have it in hardcopy. And my bookmark is on that page.
> There are several different DAEMON_OPTIONS in the sendmail.cf
> file. The manual seemingly refers to the obvious one that
> restricts connections from other than localhost.localdomain.
> But that one was already disabled, by default.

No, RH has always, to the best of my knowledge, restricted connections
to _only_ the localhost as the default. Ie., the localhost (127.0.0.1)
is the only host that can connect to the sendmail daemon. To do
otherwise would be to open the mailer to access from the whole world or
the whole domain -- there are no other default accesses they _could_
set up.

In my /etc/mail/sendmail.mc only one DAEMON_OPTIONS _not_ commented
out.
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

> The description for the one which resolved the problem when
> disabled gives no indication that it's even faintly related
> to the particular problem.

Because it's not the fix one would normally apply. Your "fix" did,
however, make the localhost mailer listen for non-localhost
connections. That was what you wanted, thus you concluded it was
fixed. It's a kind of fixed-by-accident occurance. Most people would
have given up long before this.

> > This is an inordinate amount of work for a service your provider
> > already gives you. I guess it could be useful if you're trying to
> > learn some of the ends and outs of email server setup.
>
> Not at all. I have background processes running on my systems
> which send emails to alert me to certain conditions. I want
> them all delivered to the system on which I normally read email,
> and don't want to rely on the ISP's server, which can be slow
> and subject to not-infrequent outages.

And now we know the context of why you are working at this solution.
Good that we know and I think you have adequate reason to go this route
if you cannot trust the ISP's mail system. There are other places that
will do this for you, however. eg.,
http://www.dyndns.org/services/mailhop/

[snip]
>
> > Now you know why RTFM is often good advice ;)
>
> Yep, but also often useless advice when the FM is misleading or
> not understandable by the non-expert user.

Sometimes worse than no docs at all as you end up doing something you
_think_ is correct, but turns out ...:-( Parts of Linux -- like mail
in general and sendmail in particular -- are definitley prone to this
failing.

> But I thank you for providing the reference, chapter, and
> page rather than just issuing a pontifical "RTFM !!!". :-)

I find it mildly offensive just reading it directed to others. Then
again, you _would_ be surprised how few people do. RTFM, I mean. Good
defense is to always mention that you have -- even if you haven't even
located the thing.

Is your localhost sendmail now forwarding your mail to the other,
intranet mailer in an adequate manner? Are the daemons sending
messages OK? While your fix is overkill in this setup, if it works OK
for now, I would be inclined to let it alone for a few days and get
better acquanted with sendmail setup. You probably need a break ;)

Between Google and my distractions I don't have time now to review what
you've done so far, so won't comment further. You can get some help
with sendmail configuration and quirky file format here:

http://www.sendmail.org/m4/readme.html
http://www.sendmail.org/tips/
http://www.sendmail.org/tips/relaying.html
http://www.sendmail.org/email-explained.html

The main thing is to edit the *.mc files then use the m4 processor to
generate the picky, picky, picky and abstruse *.cf files.

The RH files at least provide a good many comments _once_ you begin to
understand what the hell they're talking about. Till then, it's a
mystery wrapped in an enigma, etc.
hang in there,
prg
email above disabled

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