# mail problem (NOT Mail or Mail.app)



## chenly (May 29, 2002)

When I try to use the CLI mail, I get the following error. What's wrong?

*Welcome to Darwin!
[***-***-***-***:~] [username]% mail root
Subject: test
test
.
EOT
[***-***-***-***:~] [username]% /etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 81: fileclass: cannot open /etc/mail/local-host-names: Group writable directory*

Do I just need to change the permissions on /etc/mail/local-host-names, or is this a problem with the IP addressing/naming of the machine as supplied by my ISP, AOL/TimeWarner RoadRunner (i.e., not AOL service)?


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## fintler (May 29, 2002)

Although you have a more complicated problem than I'm going to admit to..here's a quick fix...chmod these directories...

[lhaven:/] root% chmod g-w /private/etc /etc/mail

sendmail should work...I'll post a more detailed explanation later if I get the time


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## thoule (May 29, 2002)

I'm no sendmail expert (who is), but I just commented line 81 out and made the directories not group writable and all seems to be working well enough...

>>From Sendmail.cf
Cwlocalhost
# file containing names of hosts for which we receive email
#Fw/etc/mail/local-host-names


hth
  Todd


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## fintler (May 29, 2002)

The problem with that fix is that all the mails coming from crontab reports will start filling up your /var/mail/root....a more permanent solution is to patch your mc file...but here's a patch for your cf....

--- /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.orig	Sun Sep  2 20:19:22 2001
+++ /etc/mail/sendmail.cf	Sun Mar  3 09:32:26 2002
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
 # addressing the actual file configuration problem is preferred
 # need to set this before any file actions are encountered in the cf file
 #O DontBlameSendmail=safe
+O DontBlameSendmail=GroupWritableDirPathSafe

 # default LDAP map specification
 # need to set this now before any LDAP maps are defined

that still doesn't solve the crontab problem tho...so here's a patch for crontab...

--- /etc/crontab.orig	Sun Sep  2 13:52:07 2001
+++ /etc/crontab	Mon Mar 11 22:03:06 2002
@@ -13,6 +13,6 @@
 #*/10	*	*	*	*	root	/usr/libexec/atrun

 # do daily/weekly/monthly maintenance
-15	3	*	*	*	root	sh /etc/daily	2>&1 | tee /var/log/daily.out	| mail -s "`hostname` daily output"   root
-30	4	*	*	6	root	sh /etc/weekly	2>&1 | tee /var/log/weekly.out	| mail -s "`hostname` weekly output"  root
-30	5	1	*	*	root	sh /etc/monthly 2>&1 | tee /var/log/monthly.out | mail -s "`hostname` monthly output" root
+15	3	*	*	*	root	sh /etc/daily	1>/var/log/daily.out 2>&1
+30	4	*	*	6	root	sh /etc/weekly	1>/var/log/weekly.out 2>&1
+30	5	1	*	*	root	sh /etc/monthly 1>/var/log/monthly.out 2>&1

p.s. do a man patch or start another thread about patch if you need help


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## chenly (May 29, 2002)

fintler, what do I do with these?



> _Originally posted by fintler _
> 
> *--- /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.orig	Sun Sep  2 20:19:22 2001
> +++ /etc/mail/sendmail.cf	Sun Mar  3 09:32:26 2002
> ...


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## fintler (May 29, 2002)

read man patch


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## chenly (May 29, 2002)

...but without a command line to apply, I can't decipher a man page an hope to get this exactly right on my first and only try.


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## fintler (May 29, 2002)

echo those patches into a file (each into a seperate file) then patch -p0 file.patch


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## fintler (May 29, 2002)

and as I said..those patches are only a temporary solution, you should modify your mc file, toss it through m4 and make a custom cf file so you don't have to  do a work around


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## ladavacm (May 30, 2002)

but the .mc file is not supplied with OS X

Or does anyone know where they are?


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## blb (May 30, 2002)

All the sendmail config files should be under /usr/share/sendmail/conf/ .


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