[CentOS] update to 5.5 small issues

[Robert Nichols]

On 05/16/2010 12:17 PM, fred smith wrote:
> On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 07:44:37AM -0500, Robert Nichols wrote:
>> On 05/16/2010 12:01 AM, Robert Nichols wrote:
>>> On 05/15/2010 11:23 PM, fred smith wrote:
>>>> a couple hours after the update (and requisite reboot and reinstallation
>>>> of nvidia proprietary driver), I noticed I wasn't gettting any email.
>>>> upon a little investigation, I noted that the update had replaced my
>>>> custom sendmail.cf with its own. I don't recall updates to sendmail
>>>> doing that previously,....
>>>
>>> Sounds like you installed a sendmail.cf that was not generated from
>>> /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and left the original sendmail.mc unmodified.
>>> The rpm updated the unmodified sendmail.mc configuration file.  The
>>> startup script for sendmail then saw an apparently out-of-date
>>> sendmail.mc and rebuilt it from the new sendmail.cf.
>>
>> Got the file names reversed in that last sentence.  Sorry.  Should
>> read:
>>
>>     "The startup script for sendmail then saw an apparently out-of-date
>>      sendmail.cf and rebuilt it from the new sendmail.mc."
>
> thanks for the clarification.
>
> that's odd (unless my memory is going--a real possibility).
>
> I've got "fcshome.mc" and "fcshome.cf", the latter made from the former,
> and then copied to sendmail.cf. I've done it that way for over a decade.
> that way my custom .mc never gets clobbered by a new one from the RPM
> package being installed.

That sets you up for the problem you had.  The startup script for sendmail
runs /etc/mail/make, which will rebuild out-of-date files based on
timestamps.  You've just been lucky until now.  Either the sendmail update
contained a sendmail.mc file with a timestamp older than your custom
sendmail.cf, or there were enough changes to your system that you rebuilt
your custom file anyway.

> nevertheless, your suggestion sounds reasonable. I think I'll try making
> a copy of fcshome.mc as sendmail.mc then see if the right thing happens
> next time sendmail gets an update. that way, if sendmail.mc gets stepped
> on it won't affect my customized one and I can always fall back to the
> manual way of doing things.

That's certainly the safest way to do it, but really, the only way your
customized sendmail.mc would get replaced is if the new sendmail were
somehow incompatible with the original sendmail.mc.  The update procedure
would then save your customized file as sendmail.mc.rpmsave and install a
new sendmail.mc, that rather than leaving your almost certainly
incompatible file in place.

-- 
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                 Do NOT delete it.