diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING
index a6cfbe20abac..23702af19ade 100644
--- a/UPDATING
+++ b/UPDATING
@@ -21,6 +21,12 @@ NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT FreeBSD 7.x IS SLOW:
 	developers choose to disable these features on build machines
 	to maximize performance.
 
+20070612:
+	By default, /etc/rc.d/sendmail no longer rebuilds the aliases
+	database if it is missing or older than the aliases file.  If
+	desired, set the new rc.conf option sendmail_rebuild_aliases
+	to "YES" to restore that functionality.
+
 20070612:
 	The IPv4 multicast socket code has been considerably modified, and
 	moved to the file sys/netinet/in_mcast.c. Initial support for the
diff --git a/etc/defaults/rc.conf b/etc/defaults/rc.conf
index 51671ecb9451..611d4a8f4556 100644
--- a/etc/defaults/rc.conf
+++ b/etc/defaults/rc.conf
@@ -483,6 +483,7 @@ sendmail_outbound_flags="-L sm-queue -q30m" # Flags to sendmail (outbound only)
 sendmail_msp_queue_enable="YES"	# Dequeue stuck clientmqueue mail (YES/NO).
 sendmail_msp_queue_flags="-L sm-msp-queue -Ac -q30m"
 				# Flags for sendmail_msp_queue daemon.
+sendmail_rebuild_aliases="NO"	# Run newaliases if necessary (YES/NO).
 
 
 ##############################################################
diff --git a/etc/rc.d/sendmail b/etc/rc.d/sendmail
index ab7607327202..0e96f2c37983 100755
--- a/etc/rc.d/sendmail
+++ b/etc/rc.d/sendmail
@@ -58,16 +58,18 @@ sendmail_precmd()
 	fi
 
 	# check modifications on /etc/mail/aliases
-	if [ -f "/etc/mail/aliases.db" ]; then
-		if [ "/etc/mail/aliases" -nt "/etc/mail/aliases.db" ]; then
+	if checkyesno sendmail_rebuild_aliases; then
+		if [ -f "/etc/mail/aliases.db" ]; then
+			if [ "/etc/mail/aliases" -nt "/etc/mail/aliases.db" ]; then
+				echo \
+	    	"${name}: /etc/mail/aliases newer than /etc/mail/aliases.db, regenerating"
+				/usr/bin/newaliases
+			fi
+		else
 			echo \
-	    "${name}: /etc/mail/aliases newer than /etc/mail/aliases.db, regenerating"
-			/usr/bin/newaliases
+	    	"${name}: /etc/mail/aliases.db not present, generating"
+				/usr/bin/newaliases
 		fi
-	else
-		echo \
-	    "${name}: /etc/mail/aliases.db not present, generating"
-			/usr/bin/newaliases
 	fi
 }
 
diff --git a/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/article.sgml b/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/article.sgml
index 1cd4e91883ff..3911bd8e12c4 100644
--- a/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/article.sgml
+++ b/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/article.sgml
@@ -2037,6 +2037,12 @@ mdconfig_md1="-t vnode -f /var/foo.img"</programlisting>
       <para>The <filename>ppp-user</filename> script has been renamed to
 	<filename>ppp</filename>.  &merged;</para>
 
+      <para>The <filename>sendmail</filename> script no longer rebuilds
+	the aliases database if it is missing or older than the aliases
+	file.  If desired, set the new rc.conf option
+	<varname>sendmail_rebuild_aliases</varname> to "YES" to restore
+	that functionality.</para>
+
       <para>The <varname>removable_interfaces</varname> variable
 	has been removed.</para>