Preface

Mail Administration Guide presents the concepts and procedures required to establish and maintain electronic mail services, with special focus on the configuration files needed for sendmail.

Prior to using this book, you should have already installed SunOS^TM 5.x software and set up the networking software that you plan to use.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for the system administrator whose responsibilities include setting up and maintaining mail services. Though much of the book is directed toward the experienced system administrator, it also contains information useful to novice administrators and other readers who may be new to the Solaris^TM platform.

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1, Understanding Mail Services provides an overview of the mail service. The concepts and terminology necessary to set up and maintain a mail service are discussed in detail.

Chapter 2, Setting Up and Administering Mail Services describes the steps required to set up and administer a mail service. Troubleshooting tips are included.

Chapter 3, Customizing sendmail Configuration Files explains how to edit the files that sendmail consults.

Appendix A, sendmail Configuration File includes a reference copy of the generic main.cf file.

Appendix B, sendmail Options lists the command-line arguments and the configuration options to sendmail, and the mailer flags.

Related Books

This is a list of related documentation that is refered to in this book.

• TCP/IP and Data Communications Administration Guide

• System Administration Guide

• sendmail, Second Edition, by Bryan Costales (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1997)

• !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks, by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams

Ordering Sun Documents

The SunDocs^SM program provides more than 250 manuals from Sun Microsystems, Inc. If you live in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Japan, you can purchase documentation sets or individual manuals using this program.

For a list of documents and how to order them, see the catalog section of the SunExpress^TM Internet site at http://www.sun.com/sunexpress.

What Typographic Changes Mean

Table P-1 describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% You have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	machine_name% su Password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

Table P-2 shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P-2 Shell Prompts

Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	machine_name%
C shell superuser prompt	machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	$
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	#