Sendmail, Second Edition: Theory and Practice

By Paul A. Vixie and Frederick M. Avolio

* Provides 'cookbook recipes' and simplified explanations on how Sendmail works and how to manage a mail system * Examines e-mail and Sendmail by laying ground work and defining key terms * Progresses... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155558229X
• ISBN13: 9781555582296
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Digital Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

2nd edition sorely needed

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 Because of the longer lead time in the publishing of that book, some parts were already outdated before it was published.This updated edition addresses many of these shortcomings, while still being an excellent high-level introductory text.

Best introduction to "sendmail" that is available...

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).

Dated but still relevant

"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 Although a bit dated (some of the suggested utilities are quite dated and have been superceded), the fundamentals are sound, and still very applicable.If you're a beginning sendmail administrator, read this book before reading the "Bat" book (O'Reilly's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.

Excellent explanation of sendmail.cf, companion to Bat book

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)