- Various rewording/addition in DNS part (how to check a MX for

example).
- Update an sendmail FAQ excerpt

PR:		docs/64648
Submitted by:	Marc Silver <marcs@draenor.org>
This commit is contained in:
Marc Fonvieille 2004-03-27 09:54:50 +00:00
parent 26c07c33d0
commit 27762d8717
Notes: svn2git 2020-12-08 03:00:23 +00:00
svn path=/head/; revision=20428

View file

@ -171,27 +171,42 @@
<secondary><application>exim</application></secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>This is usually <application>sendmail</application> (by
default with FreeBSD) or one of the other mail server daemons such
as <application>qmail</application>,
<application>postfix</application>, or
<application>exim</application>. There are others, but those are
the most widely used.</para>
<para>&os; ships with <application>sendmail</application> by
default, but also support numerous other mail server daemons,
just some of which include:</para>
<para>The server daemon usually has two functions&mdash;it looks
after receiving incoming mail and delivers outgoing mail. It is
not responsible for allowing you to collect mail using protocols
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><application>exim</application>;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><application>postfix</application>;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><application>qmail</application>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The server daemon usually has two functions&mdash;it is responsible
for receiving incoming mail as well as delivering outgoing mail. It is
<emphasis>not</emphasis> responsible for the collection of mail using protocols
such as <acronym>POP</acronym> or <acronym>IMAP</acronym> to
read your email, nor does it allow connecting to local
<filename>mbox</filename> or Maildir mailboxes. You may require
an additional <link linkend="mail-receive">daemon</link> for
that.</para>
<para>Be aware that some older versions of
<application>sendmail</application> have some serious security
problems, however as long as you run a current version of it you
should not have any problems. As always, it is a good idea to
stay up-to-date with any software you run.</para>
<warning>
<para>Older versions of <application>sendmail</application>
have some serious security issues which may result in an
attacker gaining local and/or remote access to your machine.
Make sure that you are running a current version to avoid
these problems. Optionally, install an alternative
<acronym>MTA</acronym> from the <link linkend="ports">&os;
Ports Collection</link>.</para>
</warning>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="mail-dns">
@ -200,15 +215,25 @@
<para>The Domain Name System (DNS) and its daemon
<command>named</command> play a large role in the delivery of
email. In order to deliver mail from your site to another, the
server daemon will look up the site in the DNS to determine the
host that will receive mail for the destination.</para>
server daemon will look up the remote site in the DNS to determine the
host that will receive mail for the destination. This process
also occurs when mail is sent from a remote host to your mail
server.</para>
<para>It works the same way when you have mail sent to you. The DNS
contains the database mapping hostname to an IP address, and a
hostname to mailhost. The IP address is specified in an A record.
The MX (Mail eXchanger) record specifies the mailhost that will
receive mail for you. If you do not have an MX record for your
hostname, the mail will be delivered directly to your host.</para>
<para><acronym>DNS</acronym> is responsible for mapping
hostnames to IP addresses, as well as for storing information
specific to mail delivery, known as MX records. The MX (Mail
eXchanger) record specifies which host, or hosts, will recieve
mail for a particular domain. If you do not have an MX record
for your hostname or domain, the mail will be delivered
directly to your host provided you have an A record pointing
your hostname to your IP address.</para>
<para>You may view the MX records for any domain by using the
&man.host.1; command, as seen in the example below:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>host -t mx FreeBSD.org</userinput>
FreeBSD.org mail is handled (pri=10) by mx1.FreeBSD.org</screen>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="mail-receive">
@ -219,13 +244,15 @@
</indexterm>
<para>Receiving mail for your domain is done by the mail host. It
will collect mail sent to you and store it for reading or pickup
in either <filename>mbox</filename> or Maildir format, depending
on your configuration. Mail can then be remotely accessed using
either <acronym>POP</acronym> or <acronym>IMAP</acronym>, or
alternatively by using a mail user agent that is locally
installed on the mail host itself which will directly
communicate with the mailbox. This means that should you only
will collect all mail sent to your domain and store it
either in <filename>mbox</filename> (the default method for storing mail) or Maildir format, depending
on your configuration.
Once mail has been stored, it may either be read locally using
applications such as &man.mail.1; or
<application>mutt</application>, or remotely accessed and
collected using protocols such as
<acronym>POP</acronym> or <acronym>IMAP</acronym>.
This means that should you only
wish to read mail locally, you are not required to install a
<acronym>POP</acronym> or <acronym>IMAP</acronym> server.</para>
@ -327,7 +354,7 @@
<para>Mailboxes may be accessed locally by directly utilizing
<acronym>MUA</acronym>'s on the server on which the mailbox
resides. This can be done using applications such as
<application>mutt</application> or <command>mail</command>.
<application>mutt</application> or &man.mail.1;.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
@ -911,9 +938,9 @@ purgestat /usr/local/supermailer/bin/purgestat-compat</programlisting>
<para>This is answered in the
<application>sendmail</application> FAQ as follows:</para>
<programlisting>I am getting <quote>Local configuration error</quote> messages, such as:
<programlisting>I'm getting these error messages:
553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself
553 MX list for domain.net points back to relay.domain.net
554 &lt;user@domain.net&gt;... Local configuration error
How can I solve this problem?
@ -922,6 +949,7 @@ You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be
forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net)
by using an MX record, but the relay machine does not recognize
itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to /etc/mail/local-host-names
[known as /etc/sendmail.cw prior to version 8.10]
(if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add <quote>Cw domain.net</quote>
to /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.</programlisting>