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CHECKSENDMAIL(8) System Manager's Manual CHECKSENDMAIL(8)

NAME

checksendmailverify sendmail address transformations.

SYNOPSIS

checksendmail [-a] [-d] [-b] [-C file.cf] [-b sendmail_binary] [-l log_file] [-r resolve] [-T test.address]

DESCRIPTION

The checksendmail program is a perl script that aids the testing of sendmail(8)'s various configuration files. checksendmail passes typical addresses (supplied in input files) through sendmail and prints the results of the resolution and transformation routines.

The input files contain a list of addresses, one per line. For example:

user
user@site
user@site.com

The input file can contain comments started with a and blank lines.

OPTIONS

Show aliasing of local addresses in mail address resolution phase of testing
Precede each address translation line with ruleset sequence summary
file.cf
Use the sendmail configuration file file.cf instead of the default /etc/sendmail.cf file.
sendmail_binary
Use the specified sendmail_binary as the path to invoke sendmail (instead of /usr/sbin/sendmail).
log_file
Log sendmail address test mode debugging output to log_file
resolve
Use resolve as the input file for the addresses to be used for mail resolving. Defaults to address.resolve.
test.address
Use test.address as the single address to test. Cannot be used in conjunction with file setting flags.

EXAMPLES

The following command will pass the addresses in address.resolve through sendmail using the configuration information in myconfig.cf.

example% cat address.resolve
user
user@site
user@site.com

example% checksendmail -C myconfig.cf
system: myhost.gadget.com		current dir: /tmp/Checksendmail
resolve file: address.resolve
sendmail binary: /usr/sbin/sendmail	sendmail version: 8.9.3
config file: /etc/sendmail.cf		config file version: V8/Berkeley

Mail address resolution
user                        --(ether )-->  user[rmtc]
user@site                   --(ether )-->  user@site[rmtc]
user@site.com               --(ether )-->  user@site.com[rmtc]

`To' address transformations for mailer ether:
user                        ---->  user
user@site                   ---->  user@site
user@site.com               ---->  user@site.com

`From' address transformations for mailer ether:
user                        ---->  user
user@site                   ---->  user
user@site.com               ---->  user

The first section of the output shows how the addresses in the input files are resolved by sendmail(8). Consider the following output line:

user@site.com --(ether )--> user@site.com[rmtc]

The input address user@site.com resolves to use the mailer. That mailer is directed to send the mail to to the user user@site.com at site (as indicated in the square brackets).

The two later sections of output show how the addresses specified as the To and From address are transformed in the text of the headers. In the example above, the To addresses are untouched. The From addresses, however, all lose their machine information on the way through the mailer:

user@site ----> user

This may be desirable when using a configuration file on a workstation which is to be hidden as a mailhost from the rest of the network.

The following is a set of addresses used at one site for the purposes of testing address resolution. Comments after the addresses detail why particular addresses are present:

user
Standard trivial address
user@rmtc
qualified at one level
user@rmtc.central
qualified at two levels
user@rmtc.central.sun.com
qualified all the way
rmtc!user
local but specified as uucp
user@summit
a workstation (normally delivered locally, though)
user@summit.central
same but more qualified
user@summit.central.sun.com
same but fully qualified
summit!user
same but specified as uucp
user@prisma
Backward compatibility tests
user@prisma.com
 
prisma!user
 
user@central
Superior domain testing
user@machine.central
more qualified, but unknown
user@summit.central
more qualified and known
user@eng
name in faraway domain
user@machine.eng
unknown machine in faraway domain
user@summit.eng
local machine, far away domain
user@hoback
far away machine
user@machine
apparently local but unknown machine
user@sun.com
Standard trivial address
user@machine.dom.sun.com
fully qualified but unknown machine
user@foo.com
standard, known, really far away domain
user@foo.dom
standard, unknown, really far away domain
site!user
Single level uucp
site1!site2!user
Double level uucp
user@foo.dom@bar.dom
Trickier address
site!user@foo.dom
Mixed uucp/domain
site!user@uunet.uu.net
Mixed double uucp/domain

NOTES

Note that checksendmail is a perl script. If your site does not have perl(1), it can be obtained via anonymous ftp from .

sendmail requires that the user have access to directory specified by the parameter in the configuration file (normally /usr/spool/mqueue). checksendmail verifies that the user has access to this directory before allowing the test to continue.

AUTHORS

Gene Kim
Rob Kolstad
Jeff Polk

Modified by Robert Harker

SEE ALSO

sendmail(8)

November 14, 2000 Debian