Sendmail Error message

[Julian Sinclair]

I have sendmail installed on a hp10.20 system here. Unfortunately it does not appear to be correctly configured but I am at a loss as to what it is complaining about. Anyway here is the error message:-

sendmail[13287]: unable to qualify my own domain name (arnie) -- using short name

To me this tells me that it cannot work out what it's domain name is, so I run a quick on sendmail configuration using the following command:-

/usr/lib/sendmail -bv -d0.3 < /dev/null

This gives me the output:-

SYSTEM IDENTITY (after readcf)

(short domain name) $w = arnie
(canonical domain name) $j = arnie.correct.co.uk
(subdomain name) $m = correct.co.uk
(node name) $k = arnie

Which to me looks correctly configured. Does anyone know what it is complaining about and how to correct it ?

Julian

[Rick Garland]

Is there a FQDN for the system in the /etc/hosts file or in DNS? The system is complaining that it does not have the FQDN. Try putting in the FQDN and then using the short name (the nodename) as the alias for the system.

[unixdaddy · Accepted solution]

edit /etc/hosts and put in your hostname with a '.' after it. Or you can edit the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf the following lines exist.

# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
#Dj$w.mydomain.co.uk

Then stop and start sendmail using the run control scripts.

[Julian Sinclair]

Managed to sort it. Isn't it amazing the number of times you struggle with a problem but as soon as you write it down and ask for help you manage to fix it ?

Anyway, this is how I fixed it.

added a hostname. entry to the /etc/hosts file
altered the order of /etc/nsswitch.conf from:-
nis dns files

to

file nis dns

No more error message.