3. Databases

Contents:
Support in Makefile
Aliasing
The ~/.forward file
:include: Files and Mailing Lists
The makemap Program
The K Command
Classes
Databases in Rules
The User Database
Hints

Database support in sendmail includes external files, internal symbol tables, and database-style hooks into processes. Databases support the common aliases and such m4 style features as mailertable and the User Database.

3.1 Support in Makefile

Some database support is always supplied as a part of sendmail (like dequote ), while others require you to include support inside your Makefile when building sendmail . Support is added on the DBMDEF= line:

DBMDEF= -DNDBM

This line adds support for ndbm (3) database files (see §18.4.1). Some database formats, such as db , may require that you also add include file and library support:

INCDIRS=-I/usr/local/include/db
LIBS=   -ldb -lresolv

Here LIBS= had -ldb added (see §18.4.6), and INCDIR= show the path to the db include files (see §18.4.3).

-DHESIOD: Supports hesiod (3) for aliases only (see §18.8.10).
-DLDAPMAP: Supports ldap (3) white pages (see §18.8.15).
-DNDBM: Supports ndbm (3) database files (see §18.8.24).
-DNEWDB: Supports the Berkeley db (3) database (see §18.8.28).
-DNIS: Supports Sun's nis network services (see §18.8.29).
-DNISPLUS: Supports Sun's nisplus network services (see §18.8.30).
-DNETINFO: Supports NeXT's netinfo (3) (see §18.8.27).