Hello,
I only got three responses to my question (one was a bit off-target, and the
other two suggested installing a later Sendmail), so I reckon that I'm not the
only one to whom Sendmail is a mystery. I understand now why the O'Reilly book
on the subject is so thick and has a bat on the cover ...
The problem was resolved by the friendly folks who manage the domain which is
the parent of the one I manage. After many incantations, they pronounced the
problem to be fixed, and a quick test verified that pronouncement. I did a
"df" on the old and new sendmail.cf files in an attempt to figure out what
they'd done, and all I found was the addition of "Dkabc" right above the
"Dwabc" I'd added. Don't ask me why it works ...
In addition to suggesting that I upgrade to sendmail 8.8.8, Chris Marble also
had some insight as to why the mail from "root" seemed to be working, "Usually
in sendmail.cf mail from root is revealed to be from the true machine name
(masquerading isn't used). You seem to be having the opposite problem."
Chris also provided links to useful information on upgrading sendmail:
http://www3.hmc.edu/docs/coolstuff/sendmail
Original question:
> I'm having a problem with sendmail ("out of the box" version) on a Solaris
> 2.5.1 system. The system is a strange beast. It's real name is something
> like:
>
> xyz.domain1.fr
>
> It has a DNS entry, a "hostname" shows "xyz", and all is well.
>
> However, for political reasons, the machne also has a DNS entry in another
> domain as something like:
>
> abc.domain2.com
>
> All mail that is sent from this machine must appear to have come from this
> address. Ideally, the machine name should just be changed to abc.domain2.com,
> but I can't do that for reasons both political and technical.
>
> Anyhow, when I send mail from this machine as "root", the return address shows
> up correctly. However, if I send mail as a non-privileged user, it shows up
> with a "From:" address of "xyz.domain2.com"; it takes the real hostname and
> adds the ".com" domain to it. I'm scratching my head over this one, because
> even if sendmail.cf is wrong, it should be consistent; if it doesn't work for a
> regular user, it shouldn't work for root.
>
> Here's what I've done so far:
>
> Added "domain domain2.com" to /etc/resolv.conf
>
> Edited sendmail.cf as follows:
>
> # Force the hostname to be "abc", and the domain to "domain2.com":
>
> Dwabc
> Cw domain2.com abc abc.deoain2.com
> Cmdomain2.com
>
> # my official hostname
> Dj$w.$m
>
> Dmdomain2.com
> Cmdomain2.com
>
> I even tried:
>
> Djabc.$m
>
> That didn't help.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:12:34 CDT