Sendmail issues with aliases

[Delerium]

Hi there!

we're having a problem wih sendmail on a AIX 5.2 system.

I can't mail to local user (email adress works) and I get the following output:

-- Snip --
hash map "Alias0": missing map file /etc/mail/aliases.db: Group writable direc
tory
dbm map "Alias0": missing map file /etc/mail/aliases: A file or directory in the
path name does not exist."
-- Snip --

So I tought the my aliases.db was out of date or something like that... so I ran sendmail -bi .. no sucess, here's the output:

-- Snip --
WARNING: Group writable directory /
WARNING: Group writable directory /var/spool
WARNING: Group writable directory /var/spool/mqueue
WARNING: Group writable directory /
hash map "Alias0": missing map file /etc/mail/aliases.db: Group writable directory
dbm map "Alias0": missing map file /etc/mail/aliases: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.
WARNING: cannot open alias database /etc/mail/aliases
Cannot create database for alias file /etc/mail/aliases: A system call received a parameter that is not valid.
-- Snip --

I know that /var and /var/spool are group writable by default (from what I read).

The only thing on this server (compare to others) is that / is 775, root:system.

So 2 questions:
1- Because of the warning, it is possible that the sendmail -bi fails? and also that I can't send mail to localuser? Just because of Warning?

2- Any solution?

Thanks guys!

Martin.

 

[aixnag]

Hi Delerium,

Problem looks simple.As per the error /etc/mail/aliases file have an invalid entry or file does not exist.
Copy the file from someother machine.
Then try #sendmail -bi

By the way
/ , /var , /var/spool by default it should be 755.

Hope it helps.

aixnag
IBM Certified Specialist - P-series AIX 5L Administration
IBM Certified Specialist - AIX V4 HACMP

 

[Delerium]

thanks aixnag for the answer...

here`s my /etc/mail/aliases:

$ ls -al /etc/mail/aliases
-rw-r--r--   1 root     system         1393 Oct 23 2000  /etc/mail/aliases

And it`s content:
$ cat /etc/mail/aliases
# @(#)87        1.3  src/bos/usr/lib/sendmail/aliases, cmdsend, bos430, 9737A_430 6/15/90 23:21:43
# IBM_PROLOG_BEGIN_TAG 
# This is an automatically generated prolog. 
#  
# bos430 src/bos/usr/lib/sendmail/aliases 1.3 
#  
# Licensed Materials - Property of IBM 
#  
# (C) COPYRIGHT International Business Machines Corp. 1985,1989 
# All Rights Reserved 
#  
# US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or 
# disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. 
#  
# IBM_PROLOG_END_TAG 
# 
# COMPONENT_NAME: CMDSEND aliases
# 
# FUNCTIONS: 
#
# ORIGINS: 10  26  27 
#
# (C) COPYRIGHT International Business Machines Corp. 1985, 1989
# All Rights Reserved
# Licensed Materials - Property of IBM
#
# US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or
# disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
#
##
#  Aliases in this file will NOT be expanded in the header from
#  Mail, but WILL be visible over networks or from /bin/bellmail.
#
#       >>>>>>>>>>      The command "sendmail -bi" must be run after
#       >> NOTE >>      this file is updated for any changes to
#       >>>>>>>>>>      affect sendmail operation.
##
 
# Alias for mailer daemon
MAILER-DAEMON:root
 
# Following alias is required by the new mail protocol, RFC 822
postmaster:root
 
# Aliases to handle mail to msgs and news
nobody: /dev/null
 
# Alias to which SSA related warnings are mailed
ssa_adm: root

I don't see anything wrond? but I`m so tired I maybe miss something? but still, I wonder if the security warning by themself can prevent the aliases to work correctly.

Thanks guys!

Martin.

 

[hirschaj]

What do your permissions on the /etc/mail directory look like?


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[p5wizard]

and on the 4 files which should be in there:

/etc/mail # ls -l
total 144
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 5954 Aug 01 11:35 aliases
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 12288 Aug 02 12:05 aliases.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 46636 Apr 19 11:49 sendmail.cf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 34 Jun 04 06:39 sendmail.pid



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Delerium]

Thanks for all the answer.. here`s the information you`ve asked for:

$ ls -al /etc/mail
total 152
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     system          512 Aug 10 15:58 .
drwxr-xr-x  28 root     system         4608 Aug 11 14:10 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root     system         1393 Oct 23 2000  aliases
-rw-r--r--   1 root     system        12288 Mar 05 14:48 aliases.db
-rw-r--r--   1 root     system        46688 Aug 10 15:58 sendmail.cf

 

[p5wizard]

Any missing files? check symlinks in /etc

Here's my list:

# find / /usr /var -xdev -ls | grep mail | egrep -v '/lpp/|/man/|/samples/|/nls/|/perl5/|/spool/'
8620 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 512 Mar 8 10:34 /etc/mail
8621 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 1384 Mar 8 10:15 /etc/mail/aliases
8622 48 -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 46648 Mar 8 10:08 /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
8630 12 -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 12288 Mar 8 10:15 /etc/mail/aliases.db
8731 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 34 Jun 4 06:38 /etc/mail/sendmail.pid
4241 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 21 Mar 8 10:09 /etc/sendmail.cf -> /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
4242 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Mar 8 10:09 /etc/aliases -> /etc/mail/aliases
12491 4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root system 74 Mar 8 10:09 /etc/mh/maildelivery
4260 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 22 Mar 8 10:34 /etc/sendmail.pid -> /etc/mail/sendmail.pid
4995 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 18 Mar 8 10:08 /usr/lib/sendmail -> /usr/sbin/sendmail
37061 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 20 Mar 8 10:09 /usr/lib/mh/maildelivery -> /etc/mh/maildelivery
4996 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 bin mail 22 Mar 8 10:08 /usr/lib/Mail.rc -> /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc
4793 12 -r-xr-x--- 1 root system 8754 Sep 4 2004 /usr/sbin/mailstats
4819 1012 -r-sr-s--x 3 root system 1032758 Nov 23 2004 /usr/sbin/sendmail
4822 4 -r--r--r-- 1 root bin 642 Sep 16 2002 /usr/sbin/sendmail_load
4819 1012 -r-sr-s--x 3 root system 1032758 Nov 23 2004 /usr/sbin/mailq
6549 32 -r-sr-sr-x 1 root mail 28934 May 14 2004 /usr/bin/bellmail
6555 128 -rwxr-xr-x 3 bin mail 129390 Nov 23 2004 /usr/bin/mail
6567 8 -r-xr-xr-x 1 bin mail 5292 May 14 2004 /usr/bin/rmail
6555 128 -rwxr-xr-x 3 bin mail 129390 Nov 23 2004 /usr/bin/mailx
6555 128 -rwxr-xr-x 3 bin mail 129390 Nov 23 2004 /usr/bin/Mail
6611 124 -r-xr-xr-x 1 bin mail 136318 Jul 17 2004 /usr/bin/inc
6613 16 -r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 14110 May 14 2004 /usr/bin/mhmail
66 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 bin mail 943 Sep 13 2002 /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc

Also check diskfree on / and /tmp...


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[aixnag]

Hi,

Try as P5wizard recommneded to check.

post #instfix -i|grep ML and #errpt details.

aixnag
IBM Certified Specialist - P-series AIX 5L Administration
IBM Certified Specialist - AIX V4 HACMP
IBM eServer Certified Specialist – p690 Technical Support
IBM Certified Solutions Expert - DB2 UDB V7.1 Database Administration for Unix, Linux, Windows and OS/2

 

[p5wizard]

I would check also permissions/ownership on sendmail executable...


HTH,

p5wizard