[jb_daefo]

Reading /usr/src/contrib/sendmail (several READMEs...)
and /usr/share/doc/.../books/handbook/sendmail.html
and searching the forums did not definitively answer...

I seem to recall some early FreeBSD books gave precise instructions on
revising the /etc/mail file(s) to include a SMART_HOST... then one
could use /usr/ports/net/sendemail (etc) to send from ones computer
to elsewhere.

[ the SMART_HOST I initially configured switched URLs I think which made it obsolete...]
[ spent a long while reading linux posts/threads about the issue without freebsd-specific information...]

It seems with the advent of webmail, it would be advantageous to have documentation something along the line of...
an /etc/mail/UPDATING
that included, say, the precise method of the various .cf .mc ...
hostname in rc.conf... instructions for a newbie to set a smart host and
the subsequent commands and some possible testing of sending mail
out to the web from the command line, given the preponderance of email
hosts VS earlier times...

Not that I've any need of it soon, but seems to be a missing part of an ideal
initial configuration of FreeBSD that may optimally include more steps than
the past (v4 v5) default ones...

Beyond my expertise at the moment. Just wondering if anyone else is
expert enough at sendmail to write something up.
Hesitant also to switch to postfix, because while its SMART_HOST may be
easier, I've always had sendmail locally to send cron messages, mail RE
periodic runs, etc UNLESS something other than sendmail actually does that
mail.

Hardly pay attention to system email... indeed just learned this year that
mail/alpine and mail/exmh2 can read root's mail (mbox)... despite having had
them installed for years...