sendmail error ..

[someone_4]

I am getting this sendmail error.. Has anyone seen this before?

sendmail -v richardl
test
.
richardl... Connecting to local...
richardl... Can't create output
root... Connecting to local...
root... Can't create output
MAILER-DAEMON... aliased to root
postmaster... aliased to root
root... Connecting to local...
root... Can't create output
MAILER-DAEMON... aliased to root
WARNING: World writable directory /var/tmp
WARNING: World writable directory /var/tmp
MAILER-DAEMON... Saved message in /var/tmp/dead.letter

[Helen French]

Hi Richard,

When a user sends a mail out, typically the errors will be returned to sender. If this cannot be done then it tries to send it to dead.letter. Sendmail tries to write to dead.letter, first in the user's home directory (if the user exists on this system) and then /var/tmp/dead.letter. If it cannot do either of them , then " it panics."

Check the permission of sendmail files. Also you will get the error messages from /var/adm/syslog/mail.log.

HTH,
Shiju

[someone_4]

Mar 1 15:29:11 lupus sendmail[2678]: PAA02678: PAB02678: DSN: Can't create outp
ut
Mar 1 15:29:11 lupus sendmail[2678]: PAB02678: to=root, delay=00:00:00, xdelay=
00:00:00, mailer=local, stat=Can't create output
Mar 1 15:29:11 lupus sendmail[2678]: PAB02678: PAC02678: return to sender: Can'
t create output
Mar 1 15:29:11 lupus sendmail[2678]: PAC02678: to=root, delay=00:00:00, xdelay=
00:00:00, mailer=local, stat=Can't create output
Mar 1 15:29:11 lupus sendmail[2678]: PAB02678: Saved message in /var/tmp/dead.l
etter

total 604
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 870 Aug 7 2001 aliases
-rw-r--r-- 1 root mail 24576 Mar 1 15:29 aliases.db
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 92832 Mar 1 15:28 sendmail.cf
-rw------- 1 root sys 92832 Mar 1 15:28 sendmail.cf.gen
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 94264 Mar 1 15:28 sendmail.cf.org
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 702 Mar 1 15:16 sendmail.cw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root mail 34 Mar 1 15:29 sendmail.pid

[Helen French]

Hi Richard,

Some thing to try:

1) Check the permission of /var/tmp directory.
2) Make it:

# chown bin:bin /var/tmp
# chmod 777 /var/tmp

HTH,
Shiju

[someone_4]

(NET-lupus) /var/mail# chown bin:bin /var/tmp
(NET-lupus) /var/mail# chmod 777 /var/tmp
(NET-lupus) /var/mail# sendmail -v richardl
test
.
richardl... Connecting to local...
richardl... Can't create output
root... Connecting to local...
root... Can't create output
MAILER-DAEMON... aliased to root
postmaster... aliased to root
root... Connecting to local...
root... Can't create output
MAILER-DAEMON... aliased to root
WARNING: World writable directory /var/tmp
WARNING: World writable directory /var/tmp
MAILER-DAEMON... Saved message in /var/tmp/dead.lette

[Helen French]

Hi Richard,

Another try:

1) Check the /var/spool/mqueue. If it is full, delete the unwanted old files.

2) Stop and start sendmail.

# /sbin/init.d/sendmail (stop/start)

3) Check any messages in /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

HTH,
Shiju

[S.K. Chan]

Are there any Qf* files in /var/spool/mqueue ? When sendmail has problem delivering, it'll rename qf* files to Qf*. Examine the Qf* files for any errors.

[someone_4]

It was just regular ole /tmp

/tmp was 555 and I changed it to 777 and now it works.
I dont understand why it was complaining about /var/tmp
when the problem was in /tmp.
Anyone ? anyone?

Richard

[Helen French · Accepted solution]

Richard,

/tmp is always a temporary space for storage. In the man page, it says if TMPDIR environmental varibale is not set, then it takes the default one - /tmp.

HTH,
Shiju

[Jeff Schussele]

Richard,

Believe sendmail uses /tmp as you compose the msg.

The err output was just warning you that /var/tmp was world writeable.

Rgds,
Jeff