mail forwarding problem with sendmail
 

here is what i did:
add the domain to local-host-names and restarted sendmail.
after that i made user webmaster and
in /home/webmaster made a .forward file with the email address i want the mail forwarded.
i made sure to chown the .forward file to webmaster and set the permissions to 644 ...
can u guys let me know what i'm doing wrong? or what i missed? i only want mail for webmaster@domain.com to be forwarded to another account.

Did you edit the sendmail.cf or sendmail.mc.

If the latter, then you need to remake the sendmail.cf

# cd /etc/mail
# make clean
# make

To see what is actually happening

$ sendmail -v webmaster@domain.com
this is a test
.
^ period at beginning of line followed by <CR>

Instead of using the clunky .forward method, why do you not add an alias
to /etc/aliases

webmaster: othersuser

for same machine

or

webmaster: otheruser@othermachine.domain.com

for a different host.

And do not forget to run the command

# newaliases

after adding entries to /etc/aliases.

Again, if you do this, test with the sendmail -v method above.

Corin -
You solution worked like a charm - I like editing the aliases file instead of the .forward file.
Thanks a million!!!!
Mark

Corin - Now that I am thinking about it...can you add in two people in the alias file? For example - can you edit it so thisguy@testdomain.com is forwarded to me@test.com and you@test.com? Just separate them with a comma?

Corin - I got it - I just added multiple addresses seperated by a comma.
Thanks again!
Mark

You solved it yourself, without giving me a chance to reply!

You are obviously getting the hang of things! :+)

Corin - laughing - I figured that I would give it a shot - presuming that the worst thing that could happen was it wouldn't work - I have another question for you though regarding virtual hosts and sendmail - let me gather my info with some screen shot and then I will post it - thanks again.
Mark

That is usually the best way to learn how to do things!

Try it, see if it works, if not try something a little different.

And sometimes with some software packages, the documentation is either non-existent, incomplete, or so incomprehensible that the only things one can do is to keep trying different things.

Only ever change one thing at a time, making a note of what you change, or more correctly, a backup of the unchanged file, and check the results carefully, and remember that a change can do one of three things

1) make things worse
2) make no difference
3) make things better

Awaiting your other question in due course ...

Corin - here is my other question -

OK - I am running RHL9 as a web server with a handful of web sites (virtual hosts). Now here is my question - when someone ssh's to my box, opens up pine and sends an email it sends as the main domain of the box, not necessarily the domain that they are associated with. For example the name of my box is car.com (not real) but I also host a web site apple.com (joe q public owns apple.com). Now when joe q public sends an email from my machine (car.com) the email is joe@car.com not joe@apple.com. How do I associate certian users with certain domains? Does that make sense?
Thanks again

Mark

For the record, and those searching the archive, this question has been answered in

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=78866

to corin
 

corin.

i followed your advice and the sendmail -v way works good now. but when i send an email to webmaster@domainname.com i dont receive the email.

JelloMaster

Please post the output of the

sendmail -v webmaster@domainname.com

test here, so that we can see what is happening.

220 plain.domain.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.8/8.12.8; Thu, 7 Aug 2003 16:45:59 -0500
>>> EHLO plain.domain.com
250-plain.domain.com Hello localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ETRN
250-DELIVERBY
250 HELP
>>> MAIL From:<admin@plain.domain.com> SIZE=5
250 2.1.0 <admin@plain.domain.com>... Sender ok
>>> RCPT To:<webmaster@domain.com>
>>> DATA
250 2.1.5 <webmaster@domain.com>... Recipient ok
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
>>> .
250 2.0.0 h77LjxbL024869 Message accepted for delivery
webmaster@domain.com... Sent (h77LjxbL024869 Message accepted for delivery)
Closing connection to [127.0.0.1]
>>> QUIT
221 2.0.0 plain.domain closing connection

here are the coresponding lines from /var/log/maillog

Aug 7 16:45:59 plain sendmail[24489]: h77LjtDT024489: from=admin, size=5, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200308072145.h77LjtDT024489@plain.domain.com>, relay=root@localhost
Aug 7 16:45:59 plain sendmail[24869]: h77LjxbL024869: from=<admin@domain.com>, size=292, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200308072145.h77LjtDT024489@domain.com>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]
Aug 7 16:45:59 plain sendmail[24489]: h77LjtDT024489: to=webmaster@domain.com, ctladdr=admin (500/500), delay=00:00:04, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=30005, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (h77LjxbL024869 Message accepted for delivery)
Aug 7 16:45:59 plain sendmail[24870]: h77LjxbL024869: to=forward@domain2.com, ctladdr=<admin@plain.domain.com> (500/500), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, pri=30504, relay=mail.domain2.com. [xx.xx.xx.x], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (ok 1060294555 qp 18285)

So the mail is being sent from the machine from where you are
sending it.

If you are not receiving it on the other machine, it means that there
must be a problem with the configuration on the other machine.

Is mail for admin redirected to another user on that machine?