Chapter 1. Release Notes
Each release of sendmail is packaged with a file
called RELEASE_NOTES, located in the top level
of the source distribution. The RELEASE_NOTES
file itemizes new features that have been added to each particular
version of sendmail since Version 8.1 (released
in 1993). This file is very complete but, on the downside, can be
difficult to parse.
In this chapter, we first show you the parts of a
RELEASE_NOTES file, then we provide the code for
a short program that makes reading the
RELEASE_NOTES file easier.
Parts of RELEASE_NOTES
Basically, the RELEASE_NOTES file
is divided into sections, each of which
deals with a separate release of sendmail. These
sections are left-justified in the file. Each begins with a single
line that contains the version number of the
sendmail release, followed by a slash, followed
by the version number of the configuration file release, followed by
the date of the release. For example:
8.13.0/8.13.0 2004/06/20
Here, the first release of the V8.13 series (8.13.0) is indicated.
The release of sendmail and its configuration
file are the same. The date of the release is in the form year
(first), month, and day.
Each such release section is then followed by indented sections that
document a change in the sendmail binary. Some
indented sections are prefixed with a keyword and colon. For the most
part, those keyword sections describe a change in something other
than the binary[1] and can look like this, for example:
SECURITY: Some security matter ...