Sendmail

Rating:
Summary: Everything you ever wanted to know about Sendmail but...
Review: ... were afraid to ask!

If you want or have to work with sendmail the ubiquitous SMTP server written by Eric Allman et. al. then this is the book for you. I have been an Unix system administrator for 15+ years and I still run to this book when I have to do anything fancy with sendmail.

Every system administrator worth their salt has to munge the sendmail.cf file at least once in their career. This book will at least point you in the right direction.

Rating:
Summary: I had 3 sendmail issues before half a day with this book
Review: ...I've owned both v1 and v2 of this book, and have continually been frustrated by both.

Big problems here are that the book isn't tremendously helpful for learning - more of a reference, and that it is at least four years out of date, which is a long time considering what's happened with the Internet since then....

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Technical Book I've Ever Seen
Review: ...then you almost certainly need this book.

This is the definitive reference on the program "sendmail", which is used to handle over 75% of all e-mail on the Internet. This is the number one book on the bookshelf for all the employees I know at Sendmail, Inc (the company Eric Allman set up to help commercialize sendmail).

It's slightly dated, in that it doesn't deal with version 8.10.x and later, but most of the more recent changes have not been excessively large, and this book is still very highly relevant.

I'm on my fourth copy now. I keep one at work, one at home, one is signed by the author and Eric himself, and thanks to the O'Reilly "Network CD Bookshelf", I now have an electronic copy on my laptop that I can search online -- a true God-send if there ever was one.

Of course, I was also one of the reviewers of this book, so I am a little prejudiced. ;-)

Rating:
Summary: The BAT BOOK
Review: Highlights

* Very Clear, Consice and easy to understand.
* Examples are good and to the point.
* Explains setup, running and Admin in depth.

Ok! Face it, if you are into sendmail and want a good reference, do you have any other choice ??

Luckily, Allman and Costales have done a wonderful job in creating this book.

Santy

Rating:
Summary: The "Bat Book" belongs at your desk.
Review: I knew nothing of sendmail (or Unix!) when I was asked to implement a new mailhub, mail-gateway, and mail-relay. While I was learning ls, cp, and vi, I was also learning how to compile, install, and configure sendmail! -Thanks to this book.

If you're going to be involved with sendmail, you've heard of the sendmail.cf file. Don't be scared, just jump in and learn it once and for all. With this book, you'll quickly master the .cf file and amaze your friends by configuring SMTP mail servers in no time. More than the complete sendmail reference, this book gives many real-world examples you can adapt to your environment.

The only drawback concerns the release of sendmail 8.9. With the significant changes between 8.8 and 8.9, O'Reilly would do us all a great favor by releasing a 3rd edition covering what's new in 8.9. Regardless, the "Bat Book" will maintain its position within arms reach of my keyboard.

Rating:
Summary: The Batbook is necessary if you admin a Sendmail server
Review: I too, am awaiting a third edition to address the major changes in versions 8.10 (which I use) and now the latest 8.11.1. Many of the reviewers are correct where they recommend that you need to have some admin, UNIX/LINUX, and some C++ language experience to fully understand the book. I had to delve into the sendmail.cf file myself and then correlate the applicable section of the sendmail.cf file to it's applicable section in the batbook and learn to understand the book and the inner workings of Sendmail. Once I made the connections and correlations between this book and sendmail.cf, this book became invaluable. In fact, it is the only legitimate complete resource on this software. In one sense, I wish it was a little more tutorial based in nature when I first started learning how to configure sendmail pressured and on the fly when our e-mail server went down and I had to become the "official expert" replacing my ex-boss the former "official expert", who left for "greener pastures". It's easy to read the book now since I know more about sendmail. I'm glad the book is here, Surfing through the sendmail.org page to find info is a nightmare. Surfing many personal webpages concerning sendmail, Many have incomplete answers to your questions and these people always tell you that if the answers to your questions are not present, "BUY THE BATBOOK"

Rating:
Summary: In keeping with the high standards of O'Rielly books
Review: If you must tackle and tame Sendmail, YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK! Without it sendmail is Greek..

Rating:
Summary: Buy it but look elsewhere too.
Review: This book is a godsend just because it's there, not because it's that good. You'll have to look elsewhere too (like sendmail.org). In fairness, configuring sendmail in all its complexity is a mess, so the book had its work cut out. However, it's not that hard to configure a simple sendmail installation, and the book should have made that possible within the first few chapters. As it stands, I'm not sure at what point in the book you should be able to actually send email without having to learn everything.

Rating:
Summary: The book rules, period.
Review: This book is a must for UNIX admins and systems analysts. The text is not for those who do not enjoy details. Great book!