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Date:      Sat, 16 Feb 2002 01:06:29 +0100
From:      Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net>
To:        FreeBSD List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Sendmail startup, oddness in /etc/rc
Message-ID:  <20020216000629.GA261@raggedclown.net>
In-Reply-To: <E16bruA-0007jF-00@falcon.prod.itd.earthlink.net>
References:  <20020215225227.GA275@raggedclown.net> <E16bruA-0007jF-00@falcon.prod.itd.earthlink.net>

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On Fri, Feb 15, 2002 at 05:36:34PM -0600, Bob Giesen wrote:
> On Friday 15 February 2002 04:52 pm, Cliff Sarginson wrote:
> > Hello,
> > While investigating how to delay the startup of my mail system
> > until later in the boot process I discovered something a bit odd. I
> > use postfix, and it is all setup as it is supposed to with the mail
> > wrapper etc. I thought I would check how it is started in /etc/rc.
> >
> > However "sendmail_enable" set to "YES" in /etc/rc.conf does not
> > work unless it finds /etc/mail/sendmail.cf ! This surely cannot be
> > correct except for users of (the real) sendmail.
> >
> > I suppose it is harmless, but if you use another MTA what do you
> > need sendmail.cf for ?
> 
>    JOOC, if you use another MTA, why would sendmail_enable be needed 
> in rc.conf?  Doesn't that line (when set to "YES") actually start the 
> sendmail daemon?
>    I may be wrong, but I think that, by virtue of having that line in 
> rc.conf (or defaults/rc.conf), you unwittingly tried to make yourself 
> a user of the real sendmail.  If so, the missing config (.cf) file 
> just prevented it from acutally happening. :-)
> 
No that is not how it works .. 
FreeBSD uses a mailwrapper program.
So when you install postfix for example, it configures the wrapper to
call the postfix sendmail rather than the real sendmail. So enabling
sendmail in rc.conf starts whatever MTA you have installed.

man 8 mailwrapper

explains it all :)


-- 
Regards
Cliff



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