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Re: sendmail bug?



On Fri, 21 Aug 1998 12:41:05 CDT, Nathan E Norman wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, David Stern wrote:
> 
> : $ man aliases
> : 
> :   [..]
> :   Loops can not occur, since no message will be sent to any person
> :   more than once.
> :   [..]
> : [..]
> : All I really want is to mail for root to go to dstern, and for mail to 
> : real-root to go to root, not get looped back to dstern.  How can I do 
> : this?
> 
> I can't think of an easy way to do this using only /etc/aliases and/or
> .forward files since aliases are edited in turn - that is "real-root"
> evaluates to "root", but "root" evaluates to "dstern".
> 
> If it is acceptable, you could set an alias like this:
> 
> root:	root,dstern
> 
> It is this situation the manpage addresses ... mail to "root" will be
> delivered to root's mailbox AND to dstern.  (See?  No loops :> )

Right..  I now believe this is correct behavior.. however..

While testing this I discovered something which I first had difficulty 
believing because it contradicts my recollection, but I am forced to 
concede that my recollection is obviously in error; root has not 
received mail since I installed sendmail, and the username "daemon" 
receives root's mail.  I know this because of the timestamp on root's 
inbox directory.

I've removed every reference to the username "daemon" from the sendmail 
config files, reran sendmailconfig and restarted sendmail, I've aliased 
root to root, root, and yet daemon still receives root's mail.

I've searched through all the sendmail documents, and I can't find any 
reference to what I think is happening, but I think root is being 
aliased to daemon.  I've never heard of root being aliased to daemon, 
I've never even heard of the username daemon receiving mail.  There are 
no errors in my logs and permissions and ownership of related files and 
directories have been quadruple verified.

I did find a reference to another MTA which absolutely prohibits mail 
delivery to root, so I'm wondering if maybe this is a new undocumented 
sendmail feature? If not, is my MTA foobar, or what is going on?

  ------/var/log/mailinfo-----
  Aug 24 12:55:12 nitro sendmail[26499]: MAA26499: 
from=<dstern@nitro.net>,
  size=220, class=0, pri=30220, nrcpts=1,
  msgid=<199808241955.MAA26499@nitro.net>, proto=ESMTP,
  relay=dstern@nitro.net [127.0.0.1]
  Aug 24 12:55:12 nitro sendmail[26503]: MAA26499: 
to="|/usr/bin/procmail",
  ctladdr=<root@nitro.net> (0/0), delay=00:00:06, xdelay=00:00:00,
  mailer=prog, stat=Sent
  -----------------------------

I believe the procmail directive above is from root's .forward file, 
but how the message lands in /var/spool/mail/daemon remains a mystery. 
(nitro==mybox)

  ------/var/spool/mail/daemon-----
  From dstern@u.washington.edu  Mon Aug 24 12:55:12 1998
  Received: from nitro.net (dstern@nitro.net [127.0.0.1])
  	by nitro.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1/Debian/GNU) with ESMTP id MAA26499
  	for <root@nitro.net>; Mon, 24 Aug 1998 12:55:06 -0700
  Message-Id: <199808241955.MAA26499@nitro.net>
  X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 (debian) 
  To: root@nitro.net
  Mime-Version: 1.0
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
  Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 12:55:05 -0700
  From: David Stern <dstern@u.washington.edu>
  ----------------------------------

See, it's to root, but daemon got it.  What the ..

-- 



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