sendmail configuration

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Hi,

My server is runnign sendmail daemon.

I want to know wheather my server is configured for sending mail,receiving mail or both.

Where can i get this information ?

sunil

[Steven E. Protter]

The only thing the sendmail daemon does for you is accept mail.

Mail can be sent with the sendmail binary whether or not the daemon is running.

Its possible to manipulate your machine to send mail via port 25 even if the sendmail daemon is not running.

But take it from someone who learned sendmail the hard way, it handles inbound mail. The binaries and configuration handle outbound mail without any help from the daemon.

Configuration information:
http://www.sendmail.org
/etc/mail
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf

SEP

[Con O'Kelly · Accepted solution]

Hi Sunil

The sendmail daemon doesn't need to be running to send mail.
To check where mail is sent look at DS parameter in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf. This sets your mail relay ie where non local mail will be forwarded.
If DS is not set then sendmail utilises DNS and looks up the MX record for a domain. If an MX record doesn't exist for that domain then mail won't be sent.

You can check DNS MX records as follows:
# nslookup -type=MX "domain.com"

Also send a test mail and look in your mail log - normally /var/adm/syslog/mail.log (unless configured differently in /etc/syslog.conf).
This will show you any problems with mail.

Cheers
Con

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Thanks Steven and Con,

Con: you explained nicely about sending mail from my HP box.

What change i have to do in configuration so that my server will receive mails from other servers ?

Sunil

[Bharat Katkar]

Hi Sunil,
Find attached doc on sendmail configuration. Frankly i haven't worked on sendmail :)
Hope that helps.
Regards,

[Geoff Wild]

In order to receive emails from other servers, you can create a MX record for your domain for that server - or you have to specify the server:

mailx -s "test" yourid@yourserver.yourdomain.com

Rgds...Geoff

[Steven E. Protter]

To receive mail:

vi /etc/rc.config.d/mailservs

SENDMAIL_SERVER=1

You may need to give a name to
SENDMAIL_SERVER_NAME=

/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

Now you have a daemon running to receive mail.

To actually get any mail, your network needs to be aware of this server. It needs to be in a DNS database or in the hosts file on all machines if the network.

SEP

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

If you have sendmail daemon running, your server can receive emails. To send mails, you don't need to have the sendmail daemon running.

Try the sendmail faq at http://www.sendmail.org/faq/

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Thanks all for you reply.

Sunil