Setting up sendmail

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Level 4

1,201 points

Setting up sendmail

I do pro bono web sites for charities. I have always tested new scripts on the target site. I just recently realized that Apache is installed on my Mac.

After a few hours of Googling I've manged to set up the Apache config file

"/private/etc/httpd/users/<user_acct>.conf"

enabling cgi, php, ... and run my local site from

"/Users/<user_acct>/Sites"

Now the question. After number of hours I've been unable to find any reliable information on setting up sendmail. All references would re appreciated.

G4 Tower Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 2, 2007 8:39 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 2, 2007 9:41 AM in response to RobertJ

See man postfix. Postfix is the name of the mail system, and postfix is the control and configuration command.

You'll need to set a root password to set up and run Postfix.

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Answer 2

Bill Scott

Level 6

11,465 points

Jul 2, 2007 9:58 AM in response to RobertJ

Here are some notes on how I did it.

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Answer 3

RobertJ Author

Level 4

1,201 points

Jul 2, 2007 12:24 PM in response to Bill Scott

Bill, In the info you gave me I see this

"Apple OS X since 10.3 comes with postfix, a more secure drop-in replacement for sendmail."

Since I use sendmail on the servers I run websites at, I really need sendmail.

I don't really want a full blown mail server; just a server to take sendmail commands from perl scripts and send out emails. My website scripts typically take POST information, filter it to make sure it is from a valid source, parse and reformat it, append it to a log file and then send the reformatted information to the appropriate person(s) via sendmail.

Thanks,
bob j

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Answer 4

RobertJ Author

Level 4

1,201 points

Jul 2, 2007 2:08 PM in response to RobertJ

Since OSX now uses postfix, for testing:

1 - Can I change the path in the perl files from "/usr/lib/sendmail" to "path to postfix"?

2 - Use the standard Perl commands

print MAIL "To: $TO\n";
print MAIL "From: $FROM\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $SUBJECT\n";
print MAIL "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
..........

with the pipe opened to postfix rather than sendmail on localhost?

3 - Using Postfix Enabler configure postfix for outbound SMTP only through my ISP to accept the "print" info from my Perl script to verify the correctness of the parsed outbound email(s)?

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Answer 5

Jul 2, 2007 4:20 PM in response to RobertJ

Since OSX now uses postfix, for testing:

1 - Can I change the path in the perl files from
"/usr/lib/sendmail" to "path to postfix"?

You don't need to do that. There's actually a sendmail command there that's kind of a drop-in replacement. It's at /usr/sbin/sendmail, so there's an issue of paths you'd need to deal with in your scripts.

2 - Use the standard Perl commands

print MAIL "To: $TO\n";
print MAIL "From: $FROM\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $SUBJECT\n";
print MAIL "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
..........

with the pipe opened to postfix rather than sendmail
on localhost?

This works for me:

<pre class="command">open (MAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -t") || print "Nothing happened.";</pre>

(obviously followed by all the print to MAIL commands).

charlie

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Answer 6

Bill Scott

Level 6

11,465 points

Jul 2, 2007 6:38 PM in response to RobertJ

What Charles said,

i.e., sendmail in OS X is a wrapper executable for postfix, precisely your your benefit in situations such as this.

If your other servers are running linux, I will bet it is the same with them.

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Answer 7

RobertJ Author

Level 4

1,201 points

Jul 2, 2007 7:09 PM in response to Charles Minow

Charles M and Bill S, thank you. The Apple forums and Mozilla provide unbelievable support!!!!

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