Sendmail: Theory and Practice

Rating:
Summary: Dated but still relevant
Review: "Sendmail : Theory and Practice" is a great introduction for anyone who has to maintain a UNIX mailserver. Although a bit dated (some of the suggested utilities are quite dated and have been superceded), the fundamentals are sound, and still very applicable.

If you're a beginning sendmail administrator, read this book before reading the "Bat" book (O'Reilly's Sendmail in a Nutshell). If you're more experienced, use it as a companion. And if you're a Guru, well...write another Sendmail book.

Rating:
Summary: Not an introduction.
Review: I disagree that this book is a good introduction to sendmail. It does not cover the basic options well, and very quickly goes off the deep end of the sendmail.cf file. It is probably a very good introduction to the advanced sendmail.cf programming that most people will never need to do.

It barely mentions how to create sendmail.cf using the m4 macro processor. It doesn't cover virtual hosting well, but spends pages and pages on uucp and decnet mail. And ,it is unix-centric to the point of assuming that all users will be on unix boxes with their own properly configured hostname and sendmail, rather than on DHCPed PCs down the hall (which seems to be the current situation).

All in all, this book told me little of nothing about the sendmail tasks I have to accomplish and way too much about stuff I should never have to touch.

Rating:
Summary: 2nd edition sorely needed
Review: The first edition of this book was an excellent general introduction, but did not cover much in the way of more modern sendmail features (such as using m4 to "compile" sendmail.cf files from the sendmail.mc "source"). Because of the longer lead time in the publishing of that book, some parts were already outdated before it was published.

This updated edition addresses many of these shortcomings, while still being an excellent high-level introductory text.

Rating:
Summary: 2nd edition sorely needed
Review: The first edition of this book was an excellent general introduction, but did not cover much in the way of more modern sendmail features (such as using m4 to "compile" sendmail.cf files from the sendmail.mc "source"). Because of the longer lead time in the publishing of that book, some parts were already outdated before it was published.

This updated edition addresses many of these shortcomings, while still being an excellent high-level introductory text.

Rating:
Summary: Best introduction to "sendmail" that is available...
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the program "sendmail", co-authored by Paul Vixie who wrote what was known as "King James Sendmail", which was based on the original code from Eric Allman plus all the available patches he could find.

This book isn't a great reference to have on the shelf, but you cannot find a better introductory text. This is an excellent book to give to your boss, if they demand to understand more about what you do in terms of managing the mail servers, etc....

However, if you're going to be doing this job on a daily basis, then you also need the book _sendmail_ by Bryan Costales, published by O'Reilly & Assoc.

Costales is an absolutely unbeatable reference book on sendmail, but isn't as good as an introductory text, if only due to its exhaustive completeness (over a thousand pages).

Rating:
Summary: Not an introduction.
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the program "sendmail", co-authored by Paul Vixie who wrote what was known as "King James Sendmail", which was based on the original code from Eric Allman plus all the available patches he could find.

This book isn't a great reference to have on the shelf, but you cannot find a better introductory text. This is an excellent book to give to your boss, if they demand to understand more about what you do in terms of managing the mail servers, etc....

However, if you're going to be doing this job on a daily basis, then you also need the book _sendmail_ by Bryan Costales, published by O'Reilly & Assoc.

Costales is an absolutely unbeatable reference book on sendmail, but isn't as good as an introductory text, if only due to its exhaustive completeness (over a thousand pages).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent explanation of sendmail.cf, companion to Bat book
Review: This is an excellent book, IMHO. Although it does contain practical, hands-on examples, it's strenth is that it explains the theory behind sendmail and, more importantly, sendmail.cf. It really lets you get a grip on why sendmail.cf looks the way it does, and how the various rules work. While it's a good book on its own, it really shines as a companion to the Bat book. (O'Reilly & Assoc. Sendmail, 2nd Edition)