More often than not, the words "sendmail configuration" strike dread in the hearts of sendmail and system administrators--and not without reason. sendmail configuration languages are as complex as any other programming languages, but used much more infrequently--only when sendmail is installed or configured. The average system administrator doesn't get enough practice to truly master this inscrutable technology.
Fortunately, there's help. The sendmail Cookbook provides step-by-step solutions for the administrator who needs to solve configuration problems fast. Say you need to configure sendmail to relay mail for your clients without creating an open relay that will be abused by spammers. A recipe in the Cookbook shows you how to do just that. No more wading through pages of dense documentation and tutorials and creating your own custom solution--just go directly to the recipe that addresses your specific problem.
Each recipe in the sendmail Cookbook outlines a configuration problem, presents the configuration code that solves that problem, and then explains the code in detail. The discussion of the code is critical because it provides the insight you need to tweak the code for your own circumstances.
The sendmail Cookbook begins with an overview of the configuration languages, offering a quick how-to for downloading and compiling the sendmail distribution. Next, you'll find a baseline configuration recipe upon which many of the subsequent configurations, or recipes, in the book are based. Recipes in the following chapters stand on their own and offer solutions for properly configuring important sendmail functions such as:
Delivering and forwarding mail
Relaying
Masquerading
Routing mail
Controlling spam
Strong authentication
Securing the mail transport
Managing the queue
Securing sendmail
sendmail Cookbook is more than just a new approach to discussing sendmail configuration. The book also provides lots of new material that doesn't get much coverage elsewhere--STARTTLS and AUTH are given entire chapters, and LDAP is covered in recipes throughout the book. But most of all, this book is about saving time--something that most system administrators have in short supply. Pick up the sendmail Cookbook and say good-bye to sendmail dread.
Chapter 1 Getting Started
Introduction
Downloading the Latest Release
Installing sendmail
Compiling sendmail to Use LDAP
Adding the regex Map Type to sendmail
Compiling sendmail with SASL Support
Compiling sendmail with STARTTLS Support
Compiling in STARTTLS File Paths
Building a sendmail Configuration
Testing a New Configuration
Logging sendmail
Chapter 2 Delivery and Forwarding
Introduction
Accepting Mail for Other Hosts
Fixing the Alias0 Missing Map Error and Creating Simple Aliases
Reading Aliases via LDAP
Configuring Red Hat 7.3 to Read Aliases from a NIS Server
Configuring Solaris 8 to Read Aliases from a NIS Server
Craig Hunt has worked with computer systems for the last twenty years, including a stint with the federal government as both a programmer and systems programmer. He joined Honeywell to work on the WWMCCS network in the days before TCP/IP, back when the network used NCP. After Honeywell, Craig went to work for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He's still there today and is currently the leader of the Network Engineering Group. Craig is the author of TCP/IP Network Administration and other O'Reilly books.
Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of sendmail Cookbook is a common European bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus). Pipistrelles are the most common bat in Britain and are abundant throughout Europe and Asia, although they are reportedly endangered in Germany and Austria. Among the world's smallest bats, Pipistrelles have a body length of 35 to 45 millimeters (about 1.5 inches) and a wingspan of 190 to 250 millimeters (about 9 inches). These tiny mammals have a voracious appetite, consuming up to 3,000 insects a night when the weather is warm. Averse to the cold, their behavior during winter months is mostly unknown. There has been a marked decline in the number of pipistrelles due to modern agricultural practices, including the use of insecticides and the illegal disturbance of their habitats by builders. Marlowe Shaeffer was the production editor and proofreader for sendmail Cookbook. Derek Di Matteo was the copyeditor. Reg Aubry, Claire Cloutier, and Emily Quill provided quality control. Jamie Peppard provided production assistance. Tom Dinse wrote the index.
Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.
David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted to FrameMaker 5.5.6 by Julie Hawks with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Marlowe Shaeffer.
