sendmail address issue

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

The root user on our sendmail 8.13 server appears to have its e-mail address doubled up, and this is causing the following error message to occur:

Sender address rejected: Domain not found ahkaplan@partners.org... Deferred: 450

What file(s) do I need to modify to correct this problem? Thanks.

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

The RELAY server is rejecting the mail because the domain does not have or cannot find a DNS server.

If this domain exists and has a DNS server, ensure that the RELAY server can query that DNS server.

Another option is to disable the rejection of mails coming from unknown domains (not recommended).

In your sendmail.mc configure:

FEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dns

Create the new cf file and restart sendmail.

[Andrew Kaplan]

I added another domain to the RELAY list and when I send an email via a GUI client, ie: Eudora or Webmin, the messages gets through both ways without a problem.

The issue now appears to be exclusively with the command prompt. Specifically, if I run the command:

mail < file

The error that I mentioned in the original question appears.

[Ivan Ferreira]

When you send a mail from the command line, the configuration that applies to the outgoing mail is located in /etc/mail/submit.cf

Edit the File and check this line:

# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
#Dj$w.Foo.COM


Chage it to this:

# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
Djyourdomain.com


For example:

# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
Djhp.com


To set the domain to be hp.com.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there -

I made the change you suggested to the /etc/mail/submit.cf, and restarted sendmail to have the change go into effect. I tried sending a file via the command prompt mail, but got an error message complaining about the syntax of the line that I had modified. I changed the submit.cf file back to its original format.

The syntax that I used was the following:

.mgh.harvard.edu

What would be my next step?

[Andrew Kaplan]

One slight correction to my previous e-mail. The syntax of the line that I changed read:

mgh.harvard.edu

NOT
.mgh.harvard.edu

Sorry about the confusion.

[Ivan Ferreira]

Have you configured in this way?

Djmgh.harvard.edu

I test on my systems and no errors reported.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

The edition of the Dj prefix to the mgh.harvard.edu seemed to work.

Just out of curiosity, what does the Dj prefix mean and signify? Thanks.

[Ivan Ferreira]

It's a sendmail parameter that defines (D) the domain (j) variables of the configuration file.

See also:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#28