Help for conf w/o dns (FEATURE(nodns))

[Sandro Dentella]

Sendmail seems to look for name server even with FEATURE(nodns), why?

I'm trying to configure sendmail to work without nameserver, but I'm
meeting some problems:

1. I use the file.mc following this message
2. using sendmail -bt, it seems to behave well
3. when trying to send a message to the local net it gives the
following messages:

====== in the syslog =======
Jul 15 17:38:33 bluff sendmail[162]: RAA00161: to=sandro@diade,
ctladdr=sandro (101/1), delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=smtp,
relay=diade.diade.it, stat=Deferred: Name server: diade.diade.it: host name
lookup failure

====== sendmail -bp =======
RAA00161 27668 Mon Jul 15 17:38 sandro
(Deferred: Name server: diade.diade.it: host name lookup fail)
sandro@diade

I interpret it like if sendmail where still looking for and answer from
the nameserver (it does not exist). Am I wong, what can I do?

Thanks in advance for any hints, possibly also sent to: san...@crcc.it

Sandro Dentella
san...@crcc.it *:-)

=======================================================================
include(`../m4/cf.m4')
VERSIONID(`linux for local net smtp, fax and uucp')dnl
OSTYPE(linux)
FEATURE(always_add_domain)
FEATURE(nodns)
FEATURE(nocanonify)
MAILER(local)dnl
MAILER(fax)dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl
MAILER(uucp)dnl
define(`UUCP_RELAY', uucp-dom:crcc)
define(`BITNET_RELAY', uucp-dom:crcc)
define(`DECNET_RELAY', uucp-dom:crcc)
define(`confMIME_FORMAT_ERRORS', `False')
LOCAL_CONFIG

FZ/etc/uucp/sys system %s

LOCAL_RULE_0

# local host
R$* < @ $w.$m. > $* $#local $: $1 us...@myhost.mydomain
R$* < @ $m. > $* $#local $: $1 us...@myhost.mydomain

# local domain
R$* < @ $+.$m > $* $#smtp $@ $2.$m $: $1 < @ $2.$m > $3 us...@host.mydomain
R$* < @ $+.$m. > $* $#smtp $@ $2.$m. $: $1 < @ $2.$m. > $3 us...@host.mydomain
R$* < @ $- > $* $#smtp $@ $2.$m $: $1 < @ $2.$m >$3 user@host

# fax
R$+ < @ $+ .FAX > $#fax $@ $2 $: $1 us...@host.FAX
R$+ < @ $+ .FAX. > $#fax $@ $2 $: $1 us...@host.FAX

# resolve locally connected UUCP links
R$* < @ $=Z . UUCP. > $* $#uucp-uudom $@ $2 $: $1 < @ $2 .UUCP. > $3

# deal with other remote names
R$* < @$* > $* $#uucp-dom $@ crcc $: $1 < @ $2 > $3 us...@host.domain

[David Ritter]

I am reposting this and it will tell you what you need to know.

From: br...@his.com (Brad Knowles)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: 8.7.5 'nodns'
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 1996 02:37:11 -0400
Organization: Heller Information Services, Inc.
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <brad-09079...@news.his.com>
References: <31DE5A...@dupont.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: brad.his.com
X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.2.0b7

In article <31DE5A...@dupont.com>, Tim Evans <tke...@dupont.com> wrote:

> Everything works fine, but sendmail always takes a minute or longer
> to start up on any non-local address. I tried created /etc/netsvc.conf
> on the system, with only "hosts=local" in it, which seems to suppress
> the DNS check, but it still takes a good while to start up sendmail
> (and to pass off messages to it via the Pine mailer). I thought
> 'nodns' and 'nocanonify' supressed attempts to resolve names via
> DNS altogether.

sendmail 8.7.y really, *really* wants to know the real name of the
host it's operating on. If you're going to use it in a real "No DNS"
environment, you either need to set up a minimal local nameserver (fake
root and all that) that knows about the local machine and nothing else, or
you need to recompile sendmail without DNS support.
--
Brad Knowles, MIME/PGP: br...@his.com
comp.mail.sendmail FAQ Maintainer <http://www.his.com/~brad/>
finger br...@his.com for my PGP Public Keys and Geek Code
The comp.mail.sendmail FAQ is at <http://www.his.com/~brad/sendmail/>

[Sandro Dentella]

Thanks for the help for configuring sendmail w/o DNS.

1. Brad Knowles suggested:

sendmail 8.7.y really, *really* wants to know the real name of the
host it's operating on. If you're going to use it in a real "No DNS"
environment, you either need to set up a minimal local nameserver (fake
root and all that) that knows about the local machine and nothing else, or
you need to recompile sendmail without DNS support.

2. A second, simpler solution has been suggested to me by Flavio Spada:

add the file /etc/services.switch as following:
hosts files

this forces sendmail to look for info on hosts from the files. I report
the part of the manual of sendmail explainig this configuration:

2.4. The Service Switch

The implementation of certain system services
such as host and user name lookup is controlled by the
service switch. If the host operating system supports
such a switch _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l will use the native version.
Ultrix, Solaris, and DEC OSF/1 are examples of such
systems.

(...)

Each line has the
name of a service and the possible implementations of
that service. For example, the file:

hosts dns files nis
aliases files nis

will ask _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l to look for hosts in the Domain Name
System first. If the requested host name is not
found, it tries local files, and if that fails it
tries NIS. Similarly, when looking for aliases it
will try the local files first followed by NIS.

---- end of literal reported manual ----

Peculiarities would be reported on system like SunOS because of
the system implementation of gethostbyname(3)....

Sandro Dentella *:-)
e-mail: san...@crcc.it