sendmail Cookbook

Preface

Introduction

sendmail is the most powerful and widely used Unix email software in the world today. Millions of Unix systems are currently running sendmail. Yet this common tool is a source of confusion for many system administrators, most of whom dread sendmail configuration. This dread has a very rational basis: complexity and lack of familiarity. sendmail configuration languages are as complex as any other programming languages, and, unlike many other languages, sendmail configuration languages are used infrequently. sendmail is configured when it is installed or upgraded; otherwise, an administrator has little interaction with the sendmail configuration. The average system administrator simply does not get enough practice to truly master the sendmail configuration languages.

For me, and a great many other techies, cooking a decent meal also falls into the category of something that I do not often practice. On my own, a Coke and a Snickers constitutes dinner, while beer and pretzels is a party. When it is my turn to cook for others, particularly to cook an elaborate meal, I need help. I don’t have time to learn how to cook on my own; I need someone to tell me exactly how it is done. Luckily, cookbooks are created for exactly this situation.

A cookbook provides recipes for a wide variety of situations. The recipes are step-by-step solutions to specific problems. In the kitchen, the problems are how to properly prepare specific dishes. On a sendmail server, the problems are ...