Eric Allman
Encyclopedia
Eric Paul Allman is an American computer programmer who developed sendmail
and its precursor delivermail
in the late 1970s and early 1980s at UC Berkeley.
, Allman knew from an early age that he wanted to work in computing, breaking into his high school's mainframe and later using the UC Berkeley computing center for his computing needs. In 1973, he entered UC Berkeley, just as the Unix
operating system began to become popular in academic circles. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC Berkeley in 1977 and 1980 respectively.
code. One such extension was delivermail
, which in 1981 turned into sendmail
. As an MTA
, it was designed to deliver e-mail
over the still relatively small (as compared to today's Internet) ARPANET
, which consisted of many smaller networks with vastly differing formats for e-mail headers.
Sendmail soon became an important part of the Berkeley Software Distribution
(BSD) and continues to be the most widely used MTA
on Unix based systems today, despite its somewhat complex configuration syntax and frequent abuse by Internet telemarketing firms. In 1998, Allman founded Sendmail, Inc., headquartered in Emeryville, California
, to do proprietary
work on improving sendmail.
Allman is credited with popularizing the Allman indent style, also known as BSD indent style.
He was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in August, 2006 in Telluride, Colorado
, and in 2009 he was recognized as a Distinguished Engineer by the Association for Computing Machinery
.
with his partner of more than 30 years, Marshall Kirk McKusick
. McKusick is a lead developer of BSD; the two first met in graduate school.
Sendmail
Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and -delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol used for email transport over the Internet....
and its precursor delivermail
Delivermail
The ancestor of sendmail, delivermail is a mail transport agent that used the FTP protocol on the early ARPANET to transmit e-mail to the recipient....
in the late 1970s and early 1980s at UC Berkeley.
Education and training
Born in El Cerrito, CaliforniaEl Cerrito, California
-Transportation:The city's primary transportation infrastructure consists of the El Cerrito Plaza and El Cerrito del Norte BART stations along with several local bus lines, operated by AC Transit, providing access to the surrounding area and the nearby cities of Albany, Berkeley and Richmond...
, Allman knew from an early age that he wanted to work in computing, breaking into his high school's mainframe and later using the UC Berkeley computing center for his computing needs. In 1973, he entered UC Berkeley, just as the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
operating system began to become popular in academic circles. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC Berkeley in 1977 and 1980 respectively.
Sendmail and other contributions
As the Unix source code was available at Berkeley, the local hackers quickly made many extensions to the AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
code. One such extension was delivermail
Delivermail
The ancestor of sendmail, delivermail is a mail transport agent that used the FTP protocol on the early ARPANET to transmit e-mail to the recipient....
, which in 1981 turned into sendmail
Sendmail
Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and -delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol used for email transport over the Internet....
. As an MTA
Mail transfer agent
Within Internet message handling services , a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture...
, it was designed to deliver e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
over the still relatively small (as compared to today's Internet) ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
, which consisted of many smaller networks with vastly differing formats for e-mail headers.
Sendmail soon became an important part of the Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
(BSD) and continues to be the most widely used MTA
Mail transfer agent
Within Internet message handling services , a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture...
on Unix based systems today, despite its somewhat complex configuration syntax and frequent abuse by Internet telemarketing firms. In 1998, Allman founded Sendmail, Inc., headquartered in Emeryville, California
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
, to do proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
work on improving sendmail.
Allman is credited with popularizing the Allman indent style, also known as BSD indent style.
He was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in August, 2006 in Telluride, Colorado
Telluride, Colorado
The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
, and in 2009 he was recognized as a Distinguished Engineer by the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
.
Personal life
Allman, who is openly gay, lives in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
with his partner of more than 30 years, Marshall Kirk McKusick
Marshall Kirk McKusick
Marshall Kirk McKusick is a computer scientist, known for his extensive work on BSD, from the 1980s to FreeBSD in the present day. He was president of the USENIX Association from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2004, and still serves on the board. He is also on the editorial board of...
. McKusick is a lead developer of BSD; the two first met in graduate school.
External links
- Homepage as of 2010-10-29
- Linkedin.com profile
- Former homepage at Berkeley
- You've got Sendmail, SalonSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
article about sendmail going commercial (December 1998) - Biography at Sendmail.com (see "Chief Science Officer")