Bug 2337594 - sendmail.service fails to start because /usr/sbin/sendmail does not exist
Summary: sendmail.service fails to start because /usr/sbin/sendmail does not exist
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: sendmail
Version: 42
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jaroslav Škarvada
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 2267022
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-01-14 12:28 UTC by Petr Pisar
Modified: 2026-06-08 16:09 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2026-06-08 16:09:31 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Fedora Package Sources sendmail pull-request 11 0 None None None 2025-02-25 19:42:13 UTC
Fedora Package Sources sendmail pull-request 9 0 None None None 2025-01-16 13:50:13 UTC

Description Petr Pisar 2025-01-14 12:28:18 UTC
After moving /usr/sbin executables to /usr/bin:

# rpm -ql sendmail |grep bin/sendmail
/usr/bin/sendmail
/usr/bin/sendmail.sendmail

a systemd service for sendmail fails to start:

Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 systemd[1]: Starting sendmail.service - Sendmail Mail Transport Agent...
Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 (sendmail)[38673]: sendmail.service: Unable to locate executable '/usr/sbin/sendmail': No such file or directory
Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 (sendmail)[38673]: sendmail.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 systemd[1]: sendmail.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=203/EXEC
Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 systemd[1]: sendmail.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 14 13:15:03 fedora-42 systemd[1]: Failed to start sendmail.service - Sendmail Mail Transport Agent.

It seems that the sysmted unit files needs to be updated to the new path:

# grep ExecStart= /usr/lib/systemd/system/sendmail.service
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd $SENDMAIL_OPTS $SENDMAIL_OPTARG

Affected version: sendmail-8.18.1-5.fc42.x86_64

Comment 1 Petr Pisar 2025-01-14 12:34:09 UTC
sm-client.service is also affected.

Comment 2 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek 2025-01-16 13:50:13 UTC
Yeah, sorry about that.
See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2338142.
Please check if https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/sendmail/pull-request/9
solves the issue.

Comment 3 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek 2025-02-25 19:42:14 UTC
The PR was merged, but the build fails for unrelated reasons.
Follow-up PR to fix build:
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/sendmail/pull-request/11

Comment 4 Aoife Moloney 2025-02-26 13:22:43 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 42 development cycle.
Changing version to 42.

Comment 5 Kaarle Ritvanen 2025-11-10 13:49:55 UTC
I upgraded a Fedora 41 installation to 43. Sendmail did not start because the systemd unit file still referred to /usr/sbin/sendmail, which did not exist. The postinstall scriptlet did not create the symlink to ../bin/sendmail because the F41 package was not yet uninstalled.

I wonder if (1) the unit file should be updated and (2) the symlinking would better be done in %posttrans.

Comment 6 Fedora Release Engineering 2026-05-06 12:02:27 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 42 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 42 on 2026-05-13.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '42'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version. Note that the version field may be hidden.
Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see it.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 42 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.

Comment 7 Aoife Moloney 2026-06-08 16:09:31 UTC
Fedora Linux 42 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2026-05-27.

Fedora Linux 42 is no longer maintained, which means that it
will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we
are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux
please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version
field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see
the version field.

If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an
active release.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.