Configuring FreeBSD 6.2 to use sendmail for sending only

[L Goodwin]

--- Chuck Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:

> On Aug 30, 2007, at 6:14 PM, L Goodwin wrote:
> [ ... ]
> > Should I be calling "mail" or "sendmail", and
> which
> > mail or sendmail should I invoke if there is more
> than
> > one of either?  Chuck's example calls sendmail in
> a
> > path that does not exist on my system (my sendmail
> is
> > in /usr/sbin/). I usually invoke whichever one is
> > first in my path.
> 
> As others have said, there is more than one way to
> do the same task,  
> but you asked to run sendmail in particular, rather
> than something else.
> 
> The path I used was that to the actual sendmail
> binary, rather than  
> the /usr/sbin wrapper which (on the particular
> machine I used,  
> anyway) would invoke Postfix instead.  You can find
> more details from  
> "man mailwrapper".

Thanks, Chuck! That's the man page I needed to see...

> 
> > One more question. Is it ok to run the script (and
> > send the email) as user root, or should I create a
> > user account with more limited permissions -- if
> so,
> > what limits should I set?
> 
> The simple answer is that you should try not to run
> things as root  
> when you can do them as a normal user.  If you wish
> the email to  
> contain arbitrary envelope from-addresses, be aware
> that only root  
> can do so without a warning message unless you use
> this FEATURE (see / 
> usr/share/sendmail/cf/README):
> 
> > use_ct_file     Read the file
> /etc/mail/trusted-users file to get the
> >                 names of users that will be
> ``trusted'', that is,  
> > able to
> >                 set their envelope from address
> using -f without  
> > generating
> >                 a warning message.  The actual
> filename can be  
> > overridden
> >                 by redefining confCT_FILE.
> 
> Someone else has already provided another example of
> a controlled  
> access email script which checks for the right UID.
> 
> -- 
> -Chuck
> 
> 
> 



       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting