xref: /freebsd/etc/mail/README (revision d0b2dbfa0ecf2bbc9709efc5e20baf8e4b44bbbf)
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2 		Sendmail Processes
3 
4 As of sendmail 8.12, in order to improve security, the sendmail binary no
5 longer needs to be set-user-ID root.  Instead, a set-group-ID binary
6 accepts command line mail and relays it to a full mail transfer agent via
7 SMTP.  A group writable client mail queue (/var/spool/clientmqueue/ by
8 default) holds the mail if an MTA can not be contacted.
9 
10 To accomplish this, under the default setup, an MTA must be listening on
11 localhost port 25.  If the rc.conf sendmail_enable option is set to "NO",
12 a sendmail daemon will still be started and bound only to the localhost
13 interface in order to accept command line submitted mail (note that this
14 does not work inside jail(2) systems as jails do not allow binding to
15 just the localhost interface).  If this is not a desirable solution, it
16 can be disabled using the sendmail_submit_enable rc.conf option.  However,
17 if both sendmail_enable and sendmail_submit_enable are set to "NO", you
18 must do one of two things for command line submitted mail:
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20 1. Designate an alternative host for the submission agent to contact
21    by altering /etc/mail/freebsd.submit.mc (or setting SENDMAIL_SUBMIT_MC
22    in /etc/make.conf to an alternate .mc file) and using
23    'make install-submit-cf' in /etc/mail/.  Change the FEATURE(msp) line
24    to FEATURE(msp, hostname) where hostname is the fully qualified hostname
25    of the alternative host.
26 
27 Or:
28 
29 2. Return to using a set-user-ID root sendmail binary by changing the
30    ownership and permissions on the sendmail binary and removing the
31    /etc/mail/submit.cf file:
32 	chown root /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
33 	chmod 4755 /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
34 	rm /etc/mail/submit.cf
35    If you install from source, set the SENDMAIL_SET_USER_ID flag in
36    /etc/make.conf.
37 
38 Also, as of 8.12, a new queue-running daemon is started to make sure mail
39 doesn't remain in the client mail queue.  By default, it simply runs the
40 client mail queue every 30 minutes.  Its behavior can be adjusted by setting
41 the sendmail_msp_queue_enable and sendmail_msp_queue_flags rc.conf options.
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43 
44 		Filtering out SPAM from your site
45 
46 Sendmail now includes excellent tools to block spam.  These tools are
47 available as FEATUREs that you can add to your site's .mc file.  Proper use
48 of these FEATUREs will prevent spammer from using your site as a relay as
49 well as significantly decrease the amount of spam that arrives at your
50 site.  No set of anti-spam tools will block all spam without blocking some
51 portion of legitimate mail as well.  Therefore, these FEATUREs are designed
52 to prevent as much spam as possible without blocking legitimate mail.
53 
54 These tools are discussed in /usr/share/sendmail/cf/README.  Read the
55 section entitled "ANTI-SPAM CONFIGURATION CONTROL".  Example usage and
56 additional tools can be found in /usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf/knecht.mc.
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