sendmail and m4

[David A. Bandel]

On Thu, 4 Apr 2002 03:03:22 -0500 (EST)
begin  Jay Nugent <jjn at home.nuge.com> spewed forth:

> Greetings,
> 
> On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, m.w.Chang wrote:
> 
> > m4... oh my cow...later.
> > 
> > I really want to learn the black art of configurating sendmail WITHOUT
> > M4 though not recommended by anyone. Sendmail doesn't read the m4 file
> > directly, so why the hussles of an extra step? Beats me...
> 
>    I agree.  I've run m4 just once in 8 years of using sendmail.  I've 
> always simply edited sendmail.cf directly.  m4 mearly takes ANOTHER
> config file and rewrites it into sendmail.cf in a different format. 
> Yes, sendmail.cf can be hard to read and figure out but it can be done!
> :-)

Why use m4?  I dare you to type your entire sendmail.cf file and _not_
make an error.  With something as important as your sendmail.cf file, I
wouldn't not use m4.  Even a two-line change with sendmail.cf's bizarre
syntax (talking about in the various rules sections) could be disastrous
for your users.

Learn to read and write rules if you want to, that's fine.  But recreate
your sendmail.cf with m4.

If you _don't_ use m4, you've missed the point (and I'm glad I don't have
a mail account on your server).

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
		-- Nemesis Racing Team motto