On Thu, 16 Nov 2006, Dan Pritts wrote:
I've got a regular problem that i've been fixing by hand for a long time but i'm hoping i can get some advice about the right way to solve it.
Fairly near the top of http://www.owlriver.com/tips/ I have a couple of articles on using sendmail.mc and doing common sendmail tasks 'correctly.' Come up with an interesting use case I have not documented, and I'll add it. As I think of it, adding 'milter-greylist' is not docoed there, nor using the sensible 'spam in hand' RBL's ... I'll add those soon.
I replace the default redhat/centos sendmail configuration files with my own set. I have always just done this by hand.
yikes ... that means you get to keep all the broken pieces ;)
One thing I do is completely whack submit.cf.
when i update the system, RPM recreates this file.
well, probably the sendmail restart when 'make' notices the timestamps
I know at a very basic level how to create an RPM. But I expect that if I create an RPM containing sendmail.cf, I will get a conflict with the existing sendmail.cf from the sendmail rpm; and I don't know how to override it. I also don't know how to make it so that the submit.cf file just doesn't exist; I am pretty sure that if that file exists, it will get called by default when people call sendmail from the command line.
sendmail.cf is too late. sendmail.mc changes to propigate in holds a useful future; if you are build and determined to have a manually written sendmail.cf, I would take the sendmail base package, and remove all entries which are in /etc/mail/, rename it a bit, and rpmbuild -ba the chopped up sendmail packaging; then I build a second package -- possible named 'sendmail-conf-local' with just hte hand tweaked contents of /etc/mail/ --- Jeepers, I feel dirty just describing it. ;)
The RPM website has a copy of the GuruLabs rpm building course materials -- search for 'gurulabs' at: http://www.rpm.org/search/ That site is set up to provide a distribution neutral storehouse for reliable RPM informantion; Some complain it does not change content enough ... but that is not its mission from the open editorial process it follows and has followed for years.