Setting sendmail_enable="YES" in /etc/rc.conf or /etc/rc.conf.local does not start the sendmail daemon. It reports it as starting but their status remains not running. I.e.: root@dove /etc/mail # service sendmail start Starting sendmail. Starting sendmail_msp_queue. root@dove /etc/mail # service sendmail status sendmail is not running. sendmail_msp_queue is not running. And `ps` verifies the not running part. It can be started from the console as in /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail -L sm-mta -bd -q30m /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail -L sm-msp-queue -Ac -q30m and it will be reported as running, it can be stopped, but restart and start both fail silently and slyly.
It works correctly when the variable sendmail_program is set to /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail in /etc/rc.conf or /etc/rc.conf.local. So the following can provide a quick fix: echo sendmail_program="/usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail" >> /etc/rc.conf though I believe it would be better if the variable was set in /etc/rc.d/sendmail: 23c23 < command=${sendmail_program:-/usr/sbin/${name}} --- > command=${sendmail_program:-/usr/libexec/sendmail/${name}}
On further inspection, the problem seems to be with /usr/sbin/mailwrapper. Running /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/bin/newaliases seem to fail, but /usr/sbin/makemap and /usr/libexec/sendmail/sendmail sork just fine.