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/etc/mail/local.cf
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf
/etc/mail/submit.cf
The local.cf, sendmail.cf, and submit.cf files are the configuration files for sendmail(1M). Starting with version 8.12 of sendmail, which was shipped with version 9 of the Solaris operating system, two configuration files are used for submission and transmission of mail, instead of only sendmail.cf, as before. These are:
sendmail.cf
Remains the principal sendmail configuration file. Used for the Mail Transmission Agent (MTA).
submit.cf
Used for the Mail Submission Program (MSP). The MSP is used to submit mail messages. Unlike the MTA, it does not run as an SMTP daemon.
A third configuration file has since been introduced:
local.cf
Used like sendmail.cf, but for systems that do not wish to allow access to remote clients. For details about how this works, see below.
The MSP does not require root privileges, thus the two-file model provides better security than the pre-sendmail 8.12 model, in which the MSP ran as a daemon and required root privileges.
In the default sendmail configuration, sendmail uses submit.cf, as indicated in ps(1) output. In ps output, you will observe two sendmail invocations, such as the ones below:
/usr/lib/sendmail -Ac -q15m /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m
The first indicates the use of submit.cf, with the client queue (/var/spool/clientmqueue) being checked---and, if needed, flushed---every 15 minutes. The second invocation runs sendmail as a daemon, waiting for incoming SMTP connections.
As shipped, sendmail.cf and, in particular, submit.cf, are appropriate for most environments. Where a knowledgeable system administrator needs to make a change, he should use the following procedures.
For sendmail.cf:
1. Change directories to the directory that contains the source files for the configuration files.
# cd /etc/mail/cf/cf
2. Create a copy of the sendmail file for your system.
# cp sendmail.mc `hostname`.mc
3. Edit `hostname`.mc. Make changes suitable for your system and environment.
4. Run make to generate the configuration file.
# /usr/ccs/bin/make `hostname`.cf
5. Copy the newly generated file to its correct location.
# cp `hostname`.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
6. Restart the sendmail service.
# svcadm restart sendmail
Note that you must restart sendmail for sendmail.cf file changes to take effect.
For submit.cf:
1. Change directories to the directory that contains the source files for the configuration files.
# cd /etc/mail/cf/cf
2. Create a copy of the submit file for your system.
# cp submit.mc submit-`hostname`.mc
3. Edit submit-`hostname`.mc. Make changes suitable for your system and environment.
4. Run make to generate the configuration file.
# /usr/ccs/bin/make submit-`hostname`.cf
5. Copy the newly generated file to its correct location.
# cp submit-`hostname`.cf /etc/mail/submit.cf
You do not need to restart sendmail for changes to submit.cf to take effect.
The sendmail(1M) man page describes how the config/local_only property can be set to true or false to disallow or allow, respectively, access to remote clients for unmodified systems. However, on a system where either of these files has been modified, setting that property might not have the intended effect. The value of that property determines which configuration file sendmail will use by default when started as a daemon: if the property is true, then local.cf will be used; otherwise, sendmail.cf will be used. There are just three lines that differ between the .mc files used to generate these .cf files:
FEATURE(`no_default_msa')dnl DAEMON_OPTIONS(`NAME=NoMTA4, Family=inet, Addr=127.0.0.1')dnl DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Name=MSA4, Family=inet, Addr=127.0.0.1, Port=587, M=E')dnl
The preceding three lines are in local.mc but not in sendmail.mc. So, for anyone customizing these files, these three lines should be included, or not, as desired, then the resulting .cf file should be copied to either /etc/mail/sendmail.cf (if the property is false) or /etc/mail/local.cf (if the property is true), in step 5 of the first procedure above.
/etc/mail/cf/README
Describes sendmail configuration files.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
Availability | SUNWsndmr |
Interface Stability | Stable |
make(1S), ps(1), sendmail(1M), svcadm(1M), attributes(5)
System Administration Guide: Network Services