sendmail startup slow

[Gerry Doris]

Marty Landman wrote:
> At 05:50 PM 1/1/2006, Gerry Doris wrote:
> 
>> Marty Landman wrote:
>>
>>> I've noticed that when rebooting sendmail takes forever - well 5 
>>> minutes anyway.
>>> Below are time relevant extracts from last reboot:
>>> $ sudo more /var/log/messages
>>> Jan  1 14:34:55 BANYAN kernel: eth0: Lite-On 82c168 PNIC rev 33 at 
>>> 0xd08e8000, 00:A0:CC:40:55:CF, IRQ 11.
>>> Jan  1 14:34:55 BANYAN kernel: eth0: Setting full-duplex based on 
>>> MII#1 link partner capability of 45e1.
>>> Jan  1 14:34:57 BANYAN xinetd[1841]: xinetd Version 2.3.10 started 
>>> with libwrap options compiled in.
>>> Jan  1 14:34:57 BANYAN xinetd[1841]: Started working: 1 available 
>>> service
>>> Jan  1 14:39:38 BANYAN sendmail: sendmail startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:41:59 BANYAN sendmail: sm-client startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:41:59 BANYAN gpm: gpm startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:42:00 BANYAN crond: crond startup succeeded
>>> $ sudo more /var/log/boot.log
>>> Jan  1 14:34:46 BANYAN autofs: automount startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:34:49 BANYAN sshd:  succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:34:54 BANYAN xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:39:38 BANYAN sendmail: sendmail startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:41:59 BANYAN sendmail: sm-client startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:41:59 BANYAN gpm: gpm startup succeeded
>>> Jan  1 14:42:00 BANYAN crond: crond startup succeeded
>>> How might I go about finding the problem here?
>>
>>
>> This generally a DNS problem.  Check to see if host names are 
>> resolving correctly.
> 
> 
> How do I do that Gerry? My /etc/hosts file seems ok. Resolv.conf lists 
> my ISP's nameservers. What can I do to pin this down?
> 
> Marty

Try typing

host mit.edu

This should come back almost immediately with the ip address for MIT. 
If that works then try

host 18.7.22.69

This is a reverse lookup for MIT.  It should also come back within a 
second or two at most.

If this works then it isn't likely a DNS issue.