From: russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Russell Schulz)
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
Subject: Re: books/articles on DNS & sendmail
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 12:42:07 MST
Organization: Private System, Edmonton, AB, Canada
X-Newsreader: rusnews v0.97

likely of general interest - the nutshell book is not incredibly old

tabata@dcl.co.jp (Super Y.S.T.) writes:

> I am looking for detailed documents (other than RFC's and manuals come with
> the system) on the following subjects;
> 
> 1) how to set up DNS

send mail to nuts@ora.com

> 2) how to write/modify sendmail.cf

> From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
> Newsgroups: news.admin.misc,comp.mail.misc,news.answers,comp.answers
> Subject: UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ
> Message-ID: <mailfaq_724396890@ecicrl>
> Date: 15 Dec 92 05:21:48 GMT
> Reply-To: mailfaq@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Mail FAQ commentary reception)
> Followup-To: news.admin.misc

Archive-name: mail-setup/part1
Last-modified: Wed Dec  9 02:54:32 EST 1992

		UNIX EMail Software - a Survey
		       Chris Lewis
		clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
		[and a host of others - thanks]

sendmail: Original author Eric Allman

    Sendmail is the granddaddy of all intelligent MTA's.  It can do just
    about anything.  It's main problem is that it can do just about
    anything.  Modification of sendmail's configuration tables (which is
    necessary with most vendor-supplied versions) is NOT for novices.
    The language of the sendmail.cf is cryptic, but that isn't really
    the problem (and this problem can be solved by using "EASE", a
    sendmail.cf writing language, or the UIUC IDA kit's configuration
    file building tools).  The problem is that it's extremely difficult
    to know when the rules you are implementing are the right thing--
    many sendmail configurations do slightly buggy, or even extremely
    buggy, things (eg: some major mail gateways munge From: headers in
    illegal ways).  The default configurations generated by the UIUC
    IDA kit are, however, very good at Doing the Right Thing under most,
    if not all, circumstances.

...

    There are several versions of sendmail extant in the world.  There
    is no "latest" version.  If you want to use sendmail, it is strongly
    recommended that you obtain "IDA sendmail".  The IDA version is much
    more likely to do the right things with mail coming from, or
    ultimately going to, UUCP sites and is much easier to maintain.  IDA
    sendmail can handle pathalias-style UUCP routing quite well.  The
    impending release of BSD 4.4 includes a new version, 6.1, of sendmail
    which has adopted much of the improvements of IDA.

    I am being a bit overly harsh on sendmail.  If you obtain a good
    configuration (like the aforementioned HPUX version), or are willing
    to spend the time to learn it, sendmail will do what you want.
    Well.  IDA sendmail is STRONGLY recommended.  The latest version of
    IDA sendmail is 5.65c, and 5.65d is in beta test.  5.65c is
    available for FTP from ftp.uu.net and uxc.cso.uiuc.edu.  Paul Pomes,
    <Paul-Pomes@uiuc.edu>, is controlling the IDA Sendmail releases.

    Sendmail is discussed in comp.mail.sendmail.

    EASE version 3.5 was posted in volume 25 of comp.sources.unix and
    is available from wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4] (directory
    /usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume25/ease) and many other c.s.u
    archives. 
-- 
Russell Schulz  russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca  ersys!rschulz  Shad 86c