If path is missing, the name of the /etc/hosts file becomes an
empty string. If the entire option is missing, the default is the value that was given to _
PATH_HOSTS when sendmail was compiled (?§3.4.40 on page 131). If the path cannot be
opened for reading (for any reason at all), host canonification by this method is silently
skipped.
One example of a use for the HostsFile option would be to use a switched-service file to
cause all host lookups to use DNS first, and then files:
hosts: dns files
In that case, you would use a special file to hold information about internal hosts which are
not known to DNS. Such a file might look like this:
123.45.67.89 secret.internal.host.domain
This special file would be defined with the HostsFile option.
The HostsFile option is not safe. If specified from the command line, it can cause sendmail
to relinquish its special privileges.
24.9.57 HostStatusDirectory
Location of persistent host status V8.8 and later
The process of delivering network mail requires that sendmail fork(2) so that the child
process can handle the queue. Then, if the ForkEachJob option (?§24.9.51 on page 1033) is
true, each job in the queue has to fork(2) again so that each child of a child can perform
eachtask. Internally, sendmail maintains tables of status information about network hosts
(such as whether the host is up or down, or refusing connections).
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