tao.thought.org is back.....

[Gary Kline]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 12:54:02PM +0100, Jan Grant wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Gary Kline wrote:
> 
> I would have suggested the DNS approach except that when I looked, 
> tao.thought.org didn't exist in your DNS (as an A record) and since ns1 
> looked like a dialup account, I assumed you're using NAT.


	thought.org has a slow IDSL 	link to my ISP, not a dialup. 
	I read, then bot DNS AND BIND; here is what has worked since an
	early bind9.


;    Machines for the thought.org domain
;
;name    class    type    IP
;
localhost  IN A       127.0.0.1
;
; Next I list my main host, which is my domain
; and mail, and web servers.
;
ns1.thought.org.        IN A  216.231.43.140
sage.thought.org.       IN A  216.231.43.140


> 
> Your mailertable entry on ns1 should probably just read
> 
> thought.org	relay:tao.thought.org
> 	or maybe
> thought.org	smtp:tao.thought.org


	Which is better? and why?  Or are they equiv?

> 
> and tao.thought.org should have "thought.org" in it's w class: that is, 
> sendmail.cw or local-whatever-the-file-is-called.


	I did have a "local-host-names", but then simply dropped the "w"
	Class into sendmail.cf.  I do have "Cw thought.org" in the config
	file. I only have 4 or 5 Unix servers, (4 right now since one
	finally died:), so I simplified.   Besides, I wasn't sure if the 
	"local-host-names" required just the short hostname or the FQDN.



> 
> You might need "makemap" to recreate the database from your plain file.


	Yes.


> 
> I suspect that you have an alias set up on ns1 that you're fiddling 
> with. In order to get it to stick, you probably need to run 
> "newaliases". Since that's run on reboot if required, that'd explain 
> your reboot-to-reconfigure behaviour.


	I did have a commented-out kline -> kline at tao.thought.org" in
	/etc/mail/aliases.  I uncommented it yesterday, 18oct,  
	I *did* run newaliases; when things STILL
	seemed to be misbehaving, I said something like "Bleep it!"
	and rebooted.

#
## uncommented : 18oct06.
#
kline:  kline at tao.thought.org


	So I'm really not sure WHAT got mail to kline at thought.org going
	back to my original home machine, tao.



> 
> Cheers,
> jan
> 
> PS. If sendmail config is such an arcane art (and it is, unless you do 
> it regularly) you might find there's mileage in installing an 
> alternative MTA.


	Well, "ethos" is Ubuntu and comes with postfix.  Seems seriously
	better; but since mail is so utterly critical, I'm not touching
	anything until some wise mail guru is right here, holding my
	hand and sharing  a jug of Jack Daniels!!

	gary

> 
> -- 
> jan grant, ISYS, University of Bristol. http://www.bris.ac.uk/
> Tel +44 (0)117 3317661   http://ioctl.org/jan/
> Goth isn't dead, it's just lying very still and sucking its cheeks in.

-- 
   Gary Kline     kline at thought.org   www.thought.org     Public service Unix