frank@odetics.com (Frank Merrow) (09/27/90)
Hi, I have a question about the way sendmail works. I have been toying with the idea of setting up some kind of an archiver server and I want to take best advantage of the system. In our case our only connection to the net is via uunet which we call once at night. The issue discribe below is only important if I am sending "large" mail files. Lets suppose I send the same message to 20 users on the net. For this example lets say 10 of the users are on cpu1.com and 5 of the users are on cpu2.com and 5 of the users are on cpu3.com. My question is how many times is my message sent to uunet: 1. 20 times (once for each user) because sendmail is a pretty dense 2. 3 times (once for each CPU) because sendmail is kind of smart 3. Once (and copies made as needed on uunet) because sendmail is very smart frank@odetics
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (09/27/90)
In article <1990Sep26.170255.10577@odetics.com> frank@odetics.UUCP (Frank Merrow) writes: >Hi, > >I have a question about the way sendmail works. I have been toying with >(....) >Lets suppose I send the same message to 20 users on the net. For this >example lets say 10 of the users are on cpu1.com and 5 of the users are >on cpu2.com and 5 of the users are on cpu3.com. My question is how many >times is my message sent to uunet: > >1. 20 times (once for each user) because sendmail is a pretty dense >2. 3 times (once for each CPU) because sendmail is kind of smart >3. Once (and copies made as needed on uunet) because sendmail is very smart It all depends on the MAILER definition in 'sendmail.cf'. Look at the F= string of flags. If the 'm' flag is present, the message will be sent once. If the 'm' flag is not present, it will be sent 20 times. I presume that you are using the UUCP mailer. Usually the UUCP mailer does not have the 'm' flag set, because there are some UUCP hosts out there which cannot handle it. It is very likely that uunet can handle the 'm' flag. If all of your UUCP neighbors can handle it, then just change the mailer definition to define the 'm' flag. If some neighbors cannot handle it, you should be able to define a new mailer which is almost identical to the UUCP mailer. Call it something different such as the UUCPM mailer. Make it identical except that it has the 'm' flag, then modify 'sendmail.cf' so that mail thru 'uunet' selects the UUCPM mailer, while other UUCP mail selects the standard mailer. Obviously you would need to test this thoroughly. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115. +1-815-753-6940
revell@uunet.UU.NET (James R Revell Jr) (09/29/90)
In article <1990Sep27.011020.14876@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: >If the 'm' flag is not present, it will be sent 20 times. > > I presume that you are using the UUCP mailer. Usually the UUCP mailer does >not have the 'm' flag set, because there are some UUCP hosts out there which >cannot handle it. It is very likely that uunet can handle the 'm' flag. We can handle it. We, in fact, use the flag in all but one of our own mailer specifications. While I'm on the subject of mailer specifications... If uunet's use of the 'm' flag in our UUCP mailer has presented a problem for any UUNET subscriber please send mail to postmaster@uunet.uu.net (I doubt there are any or I would have heard of it already). For those UUNET subscribers with a smart mailer who don't wish to have domain style addresses converted to UUCP style paths within the envelope of mail sent to their site from uunet, send postmaster@uunet.uu.net a message to this effect. We'll cease this necessary nastiness for smart uucp sites. -- James Revell uunet postmaster revell@uunet.uu.net /8^{~