Sendmail 8.11.1 Release Notes

NOTE: MSA can be turned off in the sendmail.cf file using the option,
‘no_default_msa’ in gen_cf. For more information, refer to “no_default_msa”
option below.
The XUSR SMTPcommand as well as the’-U’ (initial user submission) command
line option are deprecated. Mail user agents are expected to start using MSA for
initial user message submission from now onwards. XUSR may be removed in
future releases. The next release of sendmail will assume that any message
submitted from the command line is an initial user submission and act accordingly.
• Generating the Configuration File
gen_cf is a UNIX shell script, which is installed in the directory
‘/usr/newconfig/etc/mail/cf/cf’. This script cannot be copied to a different
directory and executed, as it uses the macros defined in the
‘/usr/newconfig/etc/mail/cf’ directory to generate sendmail.cf file.
This script provides many options that will enable a specific ruleset. The input file
for this script will be the *.m4 files defined in the
/usr/newconfig/etc/mail/cf directory. The user can specify the output file
and later incorporate site-specific changes (if any) in the output file.
NOTE: The output file generated bygen_cf, sendmail.cf.gen can be later
copied or moved to /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file.
In addition to the options provided in Sendmail 8.9.3 release, the following new
options have been added in the gen_cf script:
1. dnsbl
This new DNS-based black list option replaces ‘rbl’, the RealtimeBlackhole
List feature that was included in Sendmail 8.9.3 release. The rbl option is
deprecated now. dnsbl option avoids the possible confusion between
RealtimeBlackhole List and other DNS-based Blacklist servers like ORBS. It
takes the name of the Blacklist server and also an optional rejection message
as arguments.
dnsbl can be included multiple times in thesendmail.cf file, thereby
allowing sites to subscribe to multiple Blacklist servers. The Blacklist server
verifies the IP address of the incoming connection and rejects all the SMTP
commands if the address is blacklisted. An error message is also displayed.
2. delay_checks
This option delays the anti-spam checks by Sendmail until it issues the SMTP
RCPTcommand. Mails from certain addresses that might have been blocked
by other anti-spam checks are received. In these cases, deferred checks are
not done.
New Features 11