Les Mikesell wrote on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:49:09 -0500:
A 'make' is run when the sendmail init script starts that will rebuild sendmail.cf from sendmail.mc if it is newer, and all the databases if their corresponding text file is newer.
I was aware about the latter, not the former. You are right, it even replaces the sendmail.mc if I rename it. Good to know if it ever gets replaced by an update (I use my own mc file).
A reboot would trigger the rebuild from sendmail.mc. Perhaps it was
changed after sendmail was working before.
The point is that his sendmail.cf from his backup (=before the reboot) and after the reboot are the same. So, this scenario doesn't apply.
Backups of the files in /etc
are always a good thing...
The rebuild creates a backup at sendmail.cf.bak, btw.
You should be able to tell by the timestamps, but you can easily tell if sendmail is listening by trying to telnet to port 25 from another machine.
He already knows that sendmail accepts connections. Maillog is of no help (maybe with a higher log level, I know that you can get even more info with 14). He has to identify the cause of the timeout and the first step is to identify the phase where it happens.
Kai