Essential System Administration Pocket Reference

Electronic Mail

/etc/aliases file

alias: name [name ...]

Define a mail alias as the specified list of user(s) and/or other aliases. Aliases can be nested. An initial backslash defines a terminal alias (not subject to further expansion).

This file is stored in /etc/mail/aliases under FreeBSD and HP-UX.

sendmail

File/directory locations

Boot script configuration file

FreeBSD:	/etc/rc.conf:
		sendmail_enable=″YES″
HP-UX:	/etc/rc.config.d/mailservs:
		export SENDMAIL_SERVER=1
Linux:	/etc/sysconfig/sendmail:
		START_SENDMAIL=″yes″
Solaris:	/etc/default/sendmail:
		DAEMON=yes

sendmail.cf directory

Usual:	/etc/mail
AIX:	/etc	Linux:	/etc

Configuration file build area

AIX:	/usr/samples/tcpip/sendmail/cf
FreeBSD:	/usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf
HP-UX:	/usr/newconfig/etc/mail/cf/cf
Linux:	/usr/share/sendmail-cf/cf (Red Hat)
	/usr/share/sendmail/cf (SuSE)
Solaris:	/usr/lib/mail/cf

syslog mail facility messages

FreeBSD:	/var/log/maillog
HP-UX:	/var/adm/syslog/mail.log
Linux:	/var/log/maillog (Red Hat), /var/log/mail (SuSE)
Solaris:	/var/adm/messages

sendmail

sendmail [options]

Main sendmail server program.

Options

-bd -qnm

Run as a daemon, checking the queue every n minutes.

-bp

List the sendmail work queue (/var/queue/mqueue).

-bt

Interactive address translation mode. Subcommands:

/mx host	List MX records for host.
/map map-name address	Translate a mapped address.
/try smtp address	Address translation for mailer/recipient. Use ...