sendmail, 3rd Edition [Paperback]

Bryan Costales (Author), Eric Allman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565928393 | ISBN-13: 978-1565928398 | Publication Date: December 2002 | Edition: Third Edition

Reliable, flexible, and configurable enough to solve the mail routing needs of any web site, sendmail has withstood the test of time, but has become no less daunting in its complexity. Even the most experienced system administrators have found it challenging to configure and difficult to understand. For help in unraveling its intricacies, sendmail administrators have turned unanimously to one reliable source--the bat book, or sendmail by Bryan Costales and the creator of sendmail, Eric Allman. Now in its third edition, this best-selling reference will help you master the most demanding version of sendmail yet.

The new edition of sendmail has been completely revised to cover sendmail 8.12--a version with more features and fundamental changes than any previous version of the Unix-based email routing program. Because the latest version of sendmail differs so significantly from earlier versions, a massive rewrite of this best-selling reference was called for.

The book begins by guiding you through the building and installation of sendmail and its companion programs, such as vacation and makemap. These additional programs are pivotal to sendmail's daily operation. Next, you'll cover the day-to-day administration of sendmail. This section includes two entirely new chapters, "Performance Tuning" to help you make mail delivery as efficient as possible, and "Handling Spam" to deal with sendmail's rich anti-spam features. The next section of the book tackles the sendmail configuration file and debugging. And finally, the book wraps up with five appendices that provide more detail about sendmail than you may ever need. Altogether, versions 8.10 through 8.12 include dozens of new features, options, and macros, and this greatly expanded edition thoroughly addresses each, and provides and advance look at sendmail version 8.13 (expected to be released in 2003).

With sendmail, Third Edition in hand, you will be able to configure this challenging but necessary utility for whatever needs your system requires. This much anticipated revision is essential reading for sendmail administrators.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you are running a complex sendmail installation, possibly including multiple servers, mailing lists and the rest, you'll find this book invaluable."Computer Shopper, May 2004

About the Author

is CTO with SL3D, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado. He has been active in system administration for over fifteen years and has been writing articles and books about computer software for over twenty years. His most notable books are C from A to Z (Prentice Hall), Unix Communications (Howard Sams), and, of course, sendmail (O'Reilly & Associates).

Product Details

• Paperback: 1232 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Third Edition edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565928393
• ISBN-13: 978-1565928398
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,450,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bryan Costales has transitioned through many vocations ranging from Macy's window designer to Unix Systems Administrator. He has written technical books for over 30 years and had several short stories professionally published. He maintains his interest in photography at the http://www.bcx.org website. Bryan is currently seeking an agent for his first novel, "Jo." And hard at work writing his second novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you use Sendmail, you should use this book., May 11, 2003

By 

Tim Greer "Mr. Tim" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: sendmail, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

This is a very good book to read and reference and covers a lot. Although I don't use Sendmail anymore, I still reference it when I support a server that runs it and it coveres everything a book shoudl cover about a topic. It doesn't get all generalized and go off into basic installs and configures of other software and things just to waste more trees, it does it's job and does it well. It's *the* Sendmail book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy the 3rd edition!, January 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: sendmail, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

BUY THIS BOOK! If you have an earlier edition, throw it away and buy this book! If you looked at earlier editions and decided that they were not for you, forget the past ! Buy this book!

The third edition is more than a new edition; it is a complete re-write that vastly improves the sendmail book. The second edition had 38 chapters spread over a 1,000 pages. All of the details were there, but they were so hard to find, the index was the most used section of the book. Not anymore! Despite adding 200 more pages of material, the book has been reduced to 25 logical, organized chapters. Each chapter describes an important function and covers that function in a step-by-step manner.

The book is well organized, beautifully written, and a joy to read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There has to be better..., April 17, 2005

By 

Joaquin Menchaca (San José, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: sendmail, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

I admire O'Reilly books for their uncanny ability to hook me into a lot of advance technologies. I desperately need to get a handle on sendmail for basic configuration, so naturally I come to O'Reilly.

I investigated this book several times, and though it looks like a great awesome and essential reference, it simply does nothing for those trying to get off the ground. I think it is only for advanced and seasoned sendmail administrators, but for those trying to get a handle on sendmail, this is not the book.

In contrast, I have books on postfix and exim mail systems by O'Reilly and these books are decent in getting you started. I am saddened that this is mainly a reference and not like other O'Reilly books. The book could have been called "send mail, the definitive reference".