Very Computer

[posted to c.u.solaris and c.m.sendmail]
[follwups to c.u.s because it's a Solaris issue and I don't read c.m.s]

I've been hired to manage a pair of Solaris 2.5.1 machines (they reside in
a much larger network over which I have no control).  The email setup is
more than just a bit wonky, but I don't know how to read the .cf file due
to Sun's proprietary additions and changes to the syntax.  (That, and we
apparently have no system documentation.)

I know the "real" sendmail.cf syntax very well.  I'm going to replace
the vendor-supplied sendmail with the real one (i.e., from sendmail.org).

Has anybody done this before?  Are there any caveats I should watch for
before replacing the (backed-up) files?

Luck++;
/dev/phil

=> If you post a followup, please don't email a copy to me.  I read news
    often enough that replying to things twice is annoying.  But thanks.

: Has anybody done this before?  Are there any caveats I should watch for
: before replacing the (backed-up) files?

Blowing away sendmail is usually the first thing I do.  I'm rarely even
as careful as yourself.  :)

You'll have to regenerate your .cf file (which seems to be your main
purpose anyways).  Otherwise, go for it.  Anything else you run into
will be sendmailisms you'll be better able to deal with.

--
|   Brandon Hume aka "Hurricane" - hume at ug.cs.dal.ca & isisnet.com   |
|          "What was your username again?  *Clickity-click*"            |

|I've been hired to manage a pair of Solaris 2.5.1 machines (they reside in
|a much larger network over which I have no control).  The email setup is
|more than just a bit wonky, but I don't know how to read the .cf file due
|to Sun's proprietary additions and changes to the syntax.  (That, and we
|apparently have no system documentation.)

Are your computers mail servers or standalone hosts, or do they just
forward all mail to a mail hub?  The latter is easy to replace with a
nullclient configuration, but the former cases can involve a lot of
inspection and comparisons between the "sendmail -bt" output for both
sendmail/sendmail.cf pairs.

In the sendmail.org sendmail source distribution, there is a file in
the contrib directory that describes how to convert Sun sendmail.cf
files to sendmail.org sendmail.

|I know the "real" sendmail.cf syntax very well.  I'm going to replace
|the vendor-supplied sendmail with the real one (i.e., from sendmail.org).
|
|Has anybody done this before?  Are there any caveats I should watch for
|before replacing the (backed-up) files?

A warning is to be careful when installing recommended patch clusters.
These clusters often include sendmail patches, so if you installed the
sendmail.org sendmail in the same place, you have to delete the
sendmail patch before installing the patch cluster.

Another warning is if you build sendmail on a computer with the BIND
4.9.3-P1 patch installed, it won't run on a computer without such a
patch.  This can be a problem if you have some patched and some unpatched
computers.  You may want to install the recommended patch cluster first
on all of the computers.

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No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.

The only possible problem is if you keep up to date on patches - Sun's
patch procedure will happily overwrite your carefully-crafted
replacement when they patch the mail system, at which point the system
log will show something like "Only Sun syntax accepted in CF file" and
nothing will work.  The m*of the tale is to check what the patch
does before applying it....or write a shell wrapper which checks the
patch README for references to Sendmail in the summary before applying
it.

Paul.

--
------------------------------------------------------
Paul J. Murphy - System and Network Manager
Gemini Research Ltd, 162 Science Park, Cambridge
Phone: 01223 435305     Fax: 01223 435301

Quote:>Are there any caveats I should watch for
>before replacing the (backed-up) files?

     It's pretty straight forward, the only thing to watch out for are SUN
patches that could over write your ported sendmail.

Quote:

>[posted to c.u.solaris and c.m.sendmail]
>[follwups to c.u.s because it's a Solaris issue and I don't read c.m.s]

>I've been hired to manage a pair of Solaris 2.5.1 machines (they reside in
>a much larger network over which I have no control).  The email setup is
>more than just a bit wonky, but I don't know how to read the .cf file due
>to Sun's proprietary additions and changes to the syntax.  (That, and we
>apparently have no system documentation.)

>I know the "real" sendmail.cf syntax very well.  I'm going to replace
>the vendor-supplied sendmail with the real one (i.e., from sendmail.org).

>Has anybody done this before?  Are there any caveats I should watch for
>before replacing the (backed-up) files?

>Luck++;
>/dev/phil

>=> If you post a followup, please don't email a copy to me.  I read news
>    often enough that replying to things twice is annoying.  But thanks.

        http://www.sendmail.org/sun-specific/migration.html

-- John Beck