why sendmail only works for root user?

[baggetta]

Is there a way to turn on debugging for a user to use the mail program on AIX? I need to figure out why only "root" user is allowed to send mail on this box. When trying it with other users who have admin rights and mail groups, doesn't work. No errors on the screen. File permissions are all correct sinc it can access the mail program, but it just not creating the files in /var/spool/mqueue.

 

[jkupski]

Start by looking at sendmail's logs (I don't know about AIX, since I haven't used it in over a decade, but on linux you'd find that in /var/log named either mail or maillog.)

 

[baggetta]

No such luck in finding any log files on AIX

 

[jkupski]

Check your syslog config file (probably /etc/syslog.conf) and search for mail. If you don't find that, add a line like

mail.* /var/log/maillog

and restart the syslogd. Failing that, change the cmdline of sendmail in whatever rc script that calls it to include "-X {logfile}" Be advised though that this will likely generate alot of data in a short amount of time.

 

[baggetta]

how do you restart the syslogd again?
about the failing part, what do you mean by "rc" script that calls it? I use, "mail -s "subject" username@hotmail.com"

files are in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf, aliases, etc...

 

[baggetta]

never mind about restarting it, found it
refresh -s syslogd

 

[jkupski]

The "mail" program you mention isn't sendmail--it's mailx.

Sendmail is an MTA (mail transfer agent) which is a program responsible for routing and delivering mail. Mailx is an MUA (mail user agent) which is simply the client you use to send and read email.

The problem you're having is that "something" happens when mailx turns the message over to sendmail for delivery.

Now that you've made changes to syslog.conf and restarted syslogd, is there a maillog file in /var/log?

 

[baggetta]

I don't any log files in /var/log, but the files that sendmail creates one of them looks like this, and I've seen this problem before...

what does "deferred" error mean? I haven't changed anything in /etc/hosts file or SMPT server. I can manually connect to my SMTP server using DNS name or IP on port 25.

V4
T1099517950
K1099518031
N1
P65
I10/6/43010
Mhost map: lookup (xxxxx.company.com): deferred
Fb
$_root@localhost