sendmail shock. Bibliography?

[Douglas Surber]

In <BARNETT.91Apr4091419 at grymoire.crd.ge.com> barnett at grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) writes:

>Can smail3 or Zmailer do these things? Can anyone give examples?
>IMHO, the problem with sendmail is not the syntax (esp. with Ease), it
>is understanding EVERY POSSIBLE MAIL ADDRESS VARIATION, and HOW TO
>DEAL WITH IT CORRECTLY.

>Any delivery agent that can solve those sorts of problems will be
>complex. It's not the fault of the MDA, it's because the problem is complex.

>Switching to tools other than sendmail will not make the problem go away.

I was recently "volunteered" to take over maintaining the mail system at
my site.  Having no prior experience, I have had *Lots*Of*Fun*.

My difficulties arrise not from the sendmail program, which goes about
its job in a workman like way, nor the cf file syntax, which is a kluge
but readable with some effort, but with the actual cf file itself.
I can read any one rule and tell what it does in a low level sense, but
I have no idea why it does it, nor do I have sufficient MIPS in my head
to figure out what the larger rule sets do even in the low level sense.

The comments are cryptic when present and usually not even that.  According
to the previous administrator, the cf file is mostly the standard BSD
file with a few tweeks for our site.  He said he didn't really know what
a lot of it did or why it was there; I don't really understand what any
significant part of it does in detail or why it's there.

What would be really great would be if one or more of you gurus would help
those of us who who don't have your knowledge by creating one or two good
generic cf files--one for domain sites and one for UUCP sites, maybe one
that does both.  Document the hell out of it.  Describe what each rule
set does, both in terms of low level text manipulation and at a higher
level, why it does it.  Same for each rule in the rule set.  Document 
which classes and macros to mung and how, to localize the file.  And
leave out all of the Berkeley specific crud.  If I understand what the 
silly thing is doing in the first place, I am confident that I can fix any
breakage at my local site.

I know this would be a lot of work.  I know you won't get paid for it.
But a lot of us would be really greatful and would name our children
after you.

--
Douglas Surber                 Internet: dnsurber at jsc.nasa.gov
Lockheed                       NASAmail: dnsurber/jsc/nasa
Houston, Texas                 Phone:    713-283-5195
Life can be only understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.