[CentOS] sendmail/RPM question

Fri Nov 17 16:18:56 UTC 2006
R P Herrold <herrold at owlriver.com>

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.

-- 
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