Author Topic: Procmail/Sendmail (Read 2132 times)

sue3 · « **on:** May 12, 2005, 06:47:56 am »

Can anyone help with this?

I've just moved over to a new server and am trying to set up Listmail.

The server's control panel is limited and I'm having to set up email aliases with Sendmail/Procmail

So far no success!

The server owners say that they don't have Procmail but they do have Sendmail.

Am I right in thinking that they are the same? If so do I create the .procmailrc file as per the Listmail instructions or do I have to rename it to .sendmailrc?

Do I have to modify anything else?

Neither bounce.cgi or signup work.

Any help appreciated!

mike2 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 12, 2005, 08:26:57 am »

Procmail and Sendmail are not the same thing. Procmail is basically a local mail handler in which Sendmail hands local messages off to.

If there is no .procmailrc file then it normally just dumps the message in your regular mailbox. There are lots of ways it can be setup, but if its a typical setup, creating a .procmailrc file should work as long as the owner has sendmail configured properly to deliver the proper mail to your username.

Here's a quick look at how my .procmailrc is setup... note the permissions, etc:

Code: [Select]

-rw-rw-r--    ma-enews ma-enews      .procmailrc

[root@ns1 ma-enews]# cat .procmailrc

SHELL=/bin/sh
VERBOSE=no   # Set to yes when debugging
LOGABSTRACT=ALL
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
MAILDIR=$HOME/procmail      #you'd better make sure it exists
# LOGFILE=$MAILDIR/log   #recommended
PMDIR=$HOME/procmail

:0
* ^TO_bounce@ma-enews.com
| /usr/bin/perl /home/ma-enews/cgi-bin/bounce.cgi

DW · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2005, 04:29:03 pm »

Thanks for your reply, Mike!

Quote from: "writelink"

The server owners say that they don't have Procmail but they do have Sendmail.

Okay, the question you need to ask them is this: Is it possible/allowed for you to "pipe" or otherwise "forward" incoming email to a CGI script via an email "alias"?

Under sendmail with no .procmailrc support, your administrator might need to manually enter your aliases/forwards in the file /etc/aliases, such as follows:

bounce@site.com: "| /usr/bin/perl /home/site/cgi-bin/bounce.cgi"

.procmailrc is basically a powerful way for you to set up your own aliases/forwarders.

Regards

sue3 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 13, 2005, 07:35:09 am »

Thanks for this. Not had much success I'm afraid.

Have contacted my host who say that as this is a managed server they can't accommadate individual requests such as email aliases and piping.

I've got another option that I'm trying, so far without much success!

I have another server which uses cPanel and already runs Listmail successfully.

I've set all the mail settings in Config on my non-cPanel server for the cPanel server. These seem to be working O.K.

My problem is I can't get the bounce and signup cgi scripts to work.

I've uploaded the scripts to the cPanel server and renamed them bounce2.cgi and signup1.cgi so that they do not overwrite existing scripts.

These modified scripts contain the url of the non-cPanel server.

I've set up the aliases to point to the cPanel server where the modified scripts reside.

Neither work.

In case you are wondering, I don't want to run the list from the cPanel server as Listmail has been integrated into a big cms so I'd prefer to do it this way if it is possible!

DW · « **Reply #4 on:** May 13, 2005, 03:03:34 pm »

Sendmail might use /etc/aliases (admin only) or .procmailrc in the web directory.

Qmail uses /var/qmail/mailnames/domain.com/.qmail-* files.

Still others (cPanel) let you set up the required aliases in the control panel.

There are a few other ways to do it, too.

Do you know what mailer (or control panel/site manager) software the server uses? If I know this I can better point you in the right direction for setting up aliases on your server.

Regards

sue3 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2005, 05:24:53 am »

The non cPanel site uses Sendmail but I have no way of accessing it as far as I know.

Technical support tell me that I can't do the piping myself and they will not do it for me since they say they have 1,000s of customers and can't accommade individual requests.

This is why I'm trying to use the server that has cPanel. It seems to be partially working as I've had a listmail notice this morning to report on how many people have signed up to my newsletter.

If I can get bounce cgi and Signup.cgi working this will solve my problem.

DW · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2005, 01:17:06 pm »

cPanel instructions for email forwarding to CGI scripts can be found here.

Please let me know if you continue to have troubles.

Regards