mail not reading sendmail.cf file????

koutsane · 07-18-2007, 03:12 AM

Hi -

mail command does not appear to be reading the sendmail.cf file.

I want to set my linux servers to use our MS Exchange Mail server as the mail relay host

Example output of sendmail.cf

DSmymailserver

I have configured this by using the sendmail.mc file and using the make/m4 method.

Example of mail command

[root@linuxserver mail]# mail -v -s "linux mail relay" evank@mycompany.com.au
Cc: Null message body; hope that's ok
evank@mycompany.com.au... Connecting to [127.0.0.1] via relay...
evank@mycompany.com.au... Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]

Example of syslog mail "var/log/maillog"

ul 18 18:02:13 linuxserver sendmail[4907]: l6I82Dfo004907: to=evank@mycompany.com.au,
ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=30056,
relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by
[127.0.0.1]

PlEASE NOTE: i do not have the sendmail service runing as i do not want this server to
act as a mailserver. However, if sendmail service is runing the result is the similiar
the e-mail is succesfully sent however it still uses the localhosts/127.0.0.1 as the mail
relay....

Also, i have AIX/UNIX servers configured with sendmail to use our exchange boxes as the
primary mail relay hosts.... they work fine.

There are no firewalls configured on any hosts nor on the network.

Please help, i would appreicate any idea's no matter how far fetched as i seem to have
hit a brick wall.

Thank-you in advance,

Evan

gilead · 07-18-2007, 08:08 PM

mail doesn't use the sendmail.cf file, sendmail does. However, although mail normally invokes sendmail on the sending system (on my system anyway), it can be configured to use another SMTP connection. Have a look at the man page for your mail command. From mine:

Code:

       smtp   Normally,  mailx  invokes  sendmail(8)  directly to transfer messages.  If the
              smtp variable is set, a SMTP connection to the server specified by  the  value
              of  this  variable is used instead.  If the SMTP server does not use the stan-
              dard port, a value of server:port can be given, with port as a name  or  as  a
              number.