balug-sendmail_hassles_how_strange

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To: josh <joshw@speakeasy.net>
From: josh <joshw@speakeasy.net>
Subject: [Balug-talk] Re: [svlug] mail relaying, jitterbug
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 23:33:54 -0700

Tuesday, August 06, 2002, 10:23:01 AM, I wrote:

j> Hi all.

j> I've recently tried to set up Jitterbug
j> (http://samba.anu.edu.au/jitterbug/) as an issue tracker for my
j> current project.  I'd used it before and heartily reccommend it.

j> The problem is that it relies on email to work, and my default install
j> of slackware8 doesn't seem to want to play nice.

j> Here's my configuration:

j> joshwalker.org points at my ip.  I have a stupid dsl 'router' that
j> points ports 25 and 110 at my linux machine.  When I try to email
j> anyone at joshwalker.org, I get this error message back from my work mail
j> daemon:

j> <code>
j>   Recipient address: me@joshwalker.org
j>   Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address
j>   Diagnostic code: smtp;550 5.7.1 <me@joshwalker.org>... Relaying denied
j>   Remote system: dns;mail.joshwalker.org
j> (TCP|128.125.253.6|59493|[my ip]|25)
j> (dslxxx-xxx-xxx.sfo2.dsl.speakeasy.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.11.4/8.11.4; Tue, 6 Au
j> 2002 10:11:14 -0700)
j> </code>

j> I wasn't really planning on learning sendmail when I started to set
j> this up.  Can anyone give me a quick pointer or two on how to allow
j> people to send me mail at my linux machine?


I thought I'd tell everyone that I fixed it, and go through how I did
it, because I know everyone is just *dying* to know.

Long story made relatively short:

I had to install updated sendmail and sendmail-cf packages, along with
getting a copy of rbl.m4 from somewhere or other on the web.  I
regenerated the sendmail.cf file following the excellent instructions here:
http://www.rocketry.org/~tim/geek_stuff/sendmail.php, being very
careful to follow the instructions exactly.  The one exception is
the line sendmail.mc file:
  FEATURE(access_db, `hash /etc/mail/access')dnl
has to be changed to:
  FEATURE(access_db, `hash -T<TMPF> /etc/mail/access')dnl

Why?  What does -T<TMPF> do?  I have no idea.

Anyway.  Thanks to everyone who gave advice.  In closing, I'd like to
say that the idea of these weirdo machine-generated, nonreadable
config files is totally stupid and that I hope I never have to deal with
this ever again as long as I live, and that I'd like to scratch the face of
the person who thought of it in the first place.

- josh

===

To: balug-talk@balug.org
From: josh <joshw@speakeasy.net>
Subject: [Balug-talk] Re[2]: [svlug] mail relaying,
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 11:06:30 -0700

Wednesday, August 07, 2002, 9:37:16 AM, Robert wrote:

RHL> I used to write the sendmail.cf by hand.  It is actualy quite simple.  The
RHL> problem is that it is low level. (kindof like assembly)

RHL> Very much like regular expressions (of the substitute variety, with back
RHL> references.)

RHL> R[format of address to match] <tab> [format to output] <tab> [comment]

RHL> You have to read it like source code.  With conditionals, loops, subroutines,
RHL> variables and the likes.

RHL> It actualy reminds me of how Mozilla has been rewritten to run.  The bulk
RHL> of the GUI code is scripts, just a new environment to interpret the scripts.

RHL> Of course, I come from the programming side of systems, so it was easy to
RHL> pickup, what was basicaly, another scripting language syntax.

Yeah, I see that.  I guess my real beef is exactly that:
it's *another* scripting language.  Why everyone sees it necessary to invent
their own language is beyond me.

Anyway, I understand that back when sendmail was written, there wasn't
the profusion of standardized scripting languages that we have now, and I
understand why it was done this way.  But that doesn't change the fact
that sendmail was a titanic pain in the ass for me, and wasted two
non-billable days of my time.  Hey!  Slackware! Next time, use qmail as
the default mail client!

===

To: josh <joshw@speakeasy.net>
From: Aaron T Porter <atporter@primate.net>
Subject: Re: [Balug-talk] Re[2]: [svlug] mail relaying,
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 11:12:35 -0700

On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 11:06:30AM -0700, josh wrote:
 
> Anyway, I understand that back when sendmail was written, there wasn't
> the profusion of standardized scripting languages that we have now, and I
> understand why it was done this way.  But that doesn't change the fact
> that sendmail was a titanic pain in the ass for me, and wasted two
> non-billable days of my time.  Hey!  Slackware! Next time, use qmail as
> the default mail client!

	Friends don't let friends use qmail. It's ugly, inconsiderate and
non-free software that should never see the light of day on a production
system. No distro moving towards the FHS will ever ship with qmail, thank
god.

===


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