On 04:02 Thu 26 Nov 2020, Grant Edwards wrote:
>On 2020-11-26, thelma@sys-concept.com <thelma@sys-concept.com> wrote:
>
>> I've always used postifx but I want to try sendmail this time.
>
>Appropos of nothing, might we ask why? I've heard there are things
>that you can do with sendmail that you can't do with postfix or exim
>or qmail, but the descriptions of what sorts of "things" would require
>sendmail were rarely intelligible to a mere mortal.
>
>> And I have a hard time finding gentoo howto.
>
>Back when we used to sendmail on SunOS in the early 90's the generally
>accepted approach was to copy somebody else's config file that almost
>worked, change things more or less at random and then watch the disks
>fill up and the network crash. The miraculous part was that the disk
>would fill up but all the mail would disappear.
>
>I think sendmail configuration was where "cargo cult" programming
>originated.
>
>From "The Unix-Hater's Handbook"
>
>   Sendmail: The Vietnam of Berkeley Unix
>
>   Sendmail is the standard Unix mailer, and it is likely to remain
>   the standard Unix mailer for many, many years. Although other
>   mailers (such as MMDF and smail) have been written, none of them
>   simultaneously enjoy sendmail’s popularity or widespread animosity.
>
>O'Reilly's _Sendmail_ 4th Edition (the bat book), has 1312 pages and
>weighs four pounds.
>
>Head up the river if you must, but don't get out of the boat.
>
>--
>Grant
>
On the lighter side, it famously known that , if you poke at sendmail conf
more than once, then you are effected by the paranoia and which is not good
for you and others around you.

:)

~Bhaskar
>
>