Running mkdev cf

When ready to configure sendmail, enter:

mkdev cf.

A menu with nine items appears. sendmail remembers the user inputs entered the last time mkdev cf was run and displays those entries as the current state/value. The following describes the menu items, including which are mandatory and which are optional.

1. Edit UUCP Connections

If you wish this host to forward mail to other machines via UUCP, you must enter the names of those machines here. You can enter them manually or let this script get them with the uuname command.

2. Edit Domain

This is a mandatory item. You must either enter a domain name manually (for example, your_company.com) or let this script assign it using the hostname command.

3. NIS Support

Network Information Service (NIS) is a networked system administration service that provides a facility (maps) for maintaining mail aliases. See ``How NIS works'' for more information. If you wish to use NIS maps to define aliases, answer yes to the initial prompt under this menu item. The script will run the domainname command to obtain the NIS domain name. If domainname returns successfully, this script displays the NIS domain name. If it is unsuccessful, it will warn you that NIS does not appear to be installed. You may quit this configuration to install NIS or you may complete the remainder of this configuration, then install NIS, and then reconfigure sendmail, executing this step again.

4. Edit Alternate Host Names

This menu item is optional; but if mail is addressed to your machine by names other than that returned by the hostname or uuname utilities, you must enter these names here in order to receive that mail.

5. Miscellaneous Items

This menu item displays a submenu of four items regarding network connections to this host. All these network connections have a default status of no. If the status of any of these should be yes, select that item and respond accordingly. When the status of these four items is correct for this host, select menu item 5 to return to the main menu.

6. Set up X.400 Gateway Configuration

This menu item is optional; but if you want to send mail addressed in X.400 format from the local host, you must enter the name of an X.400 gateway machine to which sendmail can forward this mail for delivery.

7. Review configuration information

This menu item displays the current state or values of the configuration parameters set with items one to six.

8. Generate sendmail.cf file

This item first invokes menu item #7. After you press <Enter> it prompts you with this message:

Do you wish to change anything? [y/n]

If you enter y (yes), it returns you to the main menu. If you enter n (no), it generates the file /usr/lib/sendmail.cf from one through six menu items and from a default configuration source file. If /usr/lib/sendmail.cf already exists, this script saves the old sendmail.cf file as /usr/lib/sendmail.cf-. When finished, it displays that the new file has been installed, it kills the sendmail daemon if one is running, and starts a new daemon. It then returns you to the main menu.

9. Quit

Use this item to quit after generating the new configuration file or if you want to interrupt the configuration process.