View source for Short Notes on Linux Administration

=== Reset Compiz to Default Settings ===

 gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz
and restart.

=== Enable and Start <tt>sendmail</tt> ===

If you're getting "'''stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]'''" log messages from ''sendmail'', try adding the following line to your '''/etc/mail/sendmail.mc''' file:
 DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp, Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')
under the "General defines" section.

Also, make sure the <tt>sendmail</tt> daemon is running:
 ps aux | grep sendmail
If not, run it using
 sendmail -bd -q1m
where ''-q'' parameter chooses how often the email queue's new messages should be processed (here, every minute).

To test if this all works, use
 echo -e "Subject: Hello\nTesting the mailer..." | sendmail -f test@test.com ''myrealaddress@mail.com''

The advantage of <tt>sendmail</tt> over <tt>mail</tt> is that the ''from'' address need not be a valid email address... well... advantage?

== Installing <tt>sendmail</tt> ==

On most systems, <tt>sendmail</tt> comes as a package, and typically gets started during the boot from the <tt>init.d</tt>/<tt>rc.d</tt> scripts.

If you want/need to start <tt>sendmail</tt> manually, or it has died, use
 sendmail -bd
or, for debugging purposes
 sendmail -bD
that will start <tt>sendmail</tt> daemon, but will keep it in foreground, so you can see its output.

== Sending Emails using <tt>sendmail</tt> ==

The easiest way is to create the message file with all necessary definitions, e.g.
<pre>To: Mr. Recepient <recepient@hosting.com>
Subject: This is a fine example of a subject
Date: 2011-08-15 20:00:00 +0000
From: Mr. Sender <sender@hosting.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: My email service

The body of the message comes here, after a single blank line...</pre>
and then feed this file to <tt>sendmail</tt>:
<pre>sendmail -t < message_file.txt</pre>