From hsu@mail.clinet.fi  Tue Sep 29 07:50:01 1998
Received: from lohi.clinet.fi (lohi.clinet.fi [194.100.0.7])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA03400
          for <FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org>; Tue, 29 Sep 1998 07:49:57 -0700 (PDT)
          (envelope-from hsu@mail.clinet.fi)
Received: from hauki.clinet.fi (hauki.clinet.fi [194.100.0.1])
	by lohi.clinet.fi (8.9.1/8.9.0) with ESMTP id RAA04879
	for <FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org>; Tue, 29 Sep 1998 17:51:09 +0300 (EEST)
Received: (from hsu@localhost)
	by hauki.clinet.fi (8.9.1/8.9.0) id OAA21184;
	Tue, 29 Sep 1998 14:41:12 GMT
Message-Id: <199809291441.OAA21184@hauki.clinet.fi>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 14:41:12 GMT
From: Heikki Suonsivu <hsu@clinet.fi>
Reply-To: hsu@clinet.fi
To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Subject: sendmail startup could be backgrounded
X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.2

>Number:         8085
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       sendmail startup could be backgrounded
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          closed
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Sep 29 07:50:01 PDT 1998
>Closed-Date:    Fri Mar 10 03:09:08 PST 2000
>Last-Modified:  Fri Mar 10 03:09:58 PST 2000
>Originator:     Heikki Suonsivu
>Release:        FreeBSD 2.2.6-STABLE i386
>Organization:
Clinet, Espoo, Finland
>Environment:

FreeBSD-STABLE (and possibly later versions)

>Description:

sendmail tends to take ages to start up on host which has problems with its
network connection (horribly long name service timeout?).  This is
unpleasant as the network connection (or routing protocol) may be started
by a local rc file, thus jamming the boot process for long time.

>How-To-Repeat:

Break connectivity between a host and the world, reboot, and wait.

>Fix:

Sendmail should daemonize itself first and then go on with its lengthy
discussions with the name server.

As sendmail is not critical to get the boot process through, mail may get
queued, but it will be sent out later anyway, so it could be backgrounded
in /etc/rc.

A quick workaround is to start sendmail in local rc file with &

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:

From: dag-erli@ifi.uio.no (Dag-Erling C. =?iso-8859-1?Q?Sm=F8rgrav?= )
To: hsu@clinet.fi
Cc: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: bin/8085: sendmail startup could be backgrounded
Date: 29 Sep 1998 20:50:49 +0200

 Heikki Suonsivu <hsu@clinet.fi> writes:
 > sendmail tends to take ages to start up on host which has problems with its
 > network connection (horribly long name service timeout?).  This is
 > unpleasant as the network connection (or routing protocol) may be started
 > by a local rc file, thus jamming the boot process for long time.
 
 I'd like to add a comment to this: on a network-deprived system, any
 attempt to run sendmail (even to just check the mail queue) will take
 ages. I can understand that successful name lookup is necessary for
 smtp operation, but for listing the f****ing mail queue?
 
 DES
 -- 
 Dag-Erling Smrgrav - dag-erli@ifi.uio.no

From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To: <freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org>, <hsu@clinet.fi>
Cc:  
Subject: Re: bin/8085: sendmail startup could be backgrounded
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 22:10:18 -0800

 The correct way to handle this is on systems with no permanent
 network connections (ie: ETRN, etc.) is to start sendmail out
 of cron periodically to sweep the queue, and to start it out of
 inetd to receive e-mail, and to start it from whatever your ETRN script
 is to transmit outgoing mail.  Don't run it as a background daemon.
 
 For systems with bad network connections, run a local nameserver or
 better yet set up an ETRN with your upstream ISP so everyone else out
 on the Internet sending e-mail to you isn't penalized.
 
 For UUCP systems, use FEATURE(nodns) AND FEATURE(nocanonify) in the
 sendmail.mc file.
 
 This issue has been beaten to death before in the Sendmail newsgroups.
 It's an issue of network design, a proper mailserver setup and environment
 should not have "lengthly discussions with the nameserver"
 
 Ted
 
State-Changed-From-To: open->closed 
State-Changed-By: sheldonh 
State-Changed-When: Fri Mar 10 03:09:08 PST 2000 
State-Changed-Why:  
Ted's explanation looks sound and the originator's address causes 
bounces. 
>Unformatted:
