"deliver not available for sendmail programs"

[John Alton Tamplin]

Eric Ewanco wrote:

>I am trying to do some testing before plunging head-first into Cyrus.  I
>set up an alias so that only mail to that alias gets delivered by Cyrus,
>leaving the remainder of my mail undisturbed:
>
>imap:                   "|/usr/cyrus/bin/deliver -a root eje"
>
>Unfortunately when I try to execute it, I get this error:
>
>The original message was received at Wed, 30 Apr 2003 14:24:38 -0400
>from IDENT:smmsp at localhost [127.0.0.1]
>
>   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
>"|/usr/cyrus/bin/deliver -a root eje"
>    (expanded from: <imap at polycarp.ewanco.com>)
>
>   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
>sh: deliver not available for sendmail programs
>554 5.0.0 Service unavailable
>
>Now I understand that connecting to lmtpd via TCP is the preferred
>method for delivering via sendmail, but what I'm trying to accomplish is
>much more straightforward using deliver. 
>
>Oddly I am unable to figure out who is issuing this error; it's not an
>error string found in any of the C or H files in Cyrus, nor in any of
>the executables in /usr/cyrus/bin, nor in sendmail, nor in any standard
>libraries.
>
>This is kind of frustrating because deliver does exactly what I need,
>except for this seemingly arbitrary and mysterious error that has no
>clear purpose.  Does anyone know why I am getting it and is there a way
>of working around this error?
>  
>
Depending of your configuration of sendmail, you will need to put any 
delivery programs in a trusted location, such as /var/adm/sm.bin.  This 
is to prevent a user setting an alias to a program which is not designed 
to process mail deliveries and opening a security hole or causing loss 
of email.  The message is coming from smrsh, which is set as the program 
for the prog mailer.

-- 
John A. Tamplin                               Unix System Administrator
Emory University, School of Public Health     +1 404/727-9931