gmp@rayssd.UUCP (02/28/87)
What follows is a three line change to the sendmail.cf file that
comes with sendmail that will allow for cheaper phone bills for
mailing list coordinators.
The problem is that sendmail uses the host portion of the address
(as specified with $@) to group addresses. Since addresses with
different hostnames may end up having the same next uucp hop after
being processed by smail, there is a lack of efficiency here. By
calling the smail mailer with a bogus hostname that is the same
for all uucp mail, the smail mailer is given all the addresses on
the list and can group them properly after they have been expanded.
The gain here on a large mailing list is about 1/7th to 1/8th as
many letters actually having to be transferred via uucp. We have
been using this little kludge for two months or more, and I haven't
noticed any problems (we're running 4.2BSD uucp-only w/local-smtp).
Before you decide to use this, remember that you must not talk to
any 4.1BSD sites, since their rmail can't handle multiple arguments.
Also, for a large mailing list, you may overflow the maximum command
length (as passed to smail) on your own system.
Here are the changes to the sendmail.cf file. (Sorry, no diffs,
but my sendmail.cf has too many local changes in it.)
Change the line
R$*<@$*>$* $#uux$@$2$:$1$3 hand to uucp
to
R$*<@$*>$* $#smail$@$j$:$2!$1$3 hand to smail w/dummyhost
then, after the uux mailer definition
Muux, P=/bin/smail, F=sDFMhum, S=14, R=24, M=100000,
A=smail -vH$j $h!$u
and add the following new mailer definition.
Msmail, P=/bin/smail, F=sDFMhum, S=14, R=24, M=100000,
A=smail -vH$h $u
Note that the version string is used for the dummy host name.
If you try this and have any problems with it, please let me know.
I'll report to this newsgroup any problems that anybody turns up.
--
Greg Paris ....................... gmp@rayssd.RAY.COM
{cbosgd,gatech,ihnp4,linus,mirror,uiucdcs}!rayssd!gmp
.. Everything seems to be up in the air at this point
................ I need something to change your mind