i happen to have gnu make installed and leading in my PATH.  causing
resolution of libsmutil obj dir to fail.

maple [324] /usr/bin/make DESTDIR=/u5/release-1.5A2 BSDSRCDIR=/u5/1.5A2/src BSDOBJDIR=/u5/obj-1.5A2 UPDATE=1
Makefile:3: *** missing separator.  Stop.
"/u5/1.5A2/src/gnu/usr.sbin/sendmail/sendmail/Makefile", line 14: warning: "cd /u5/1.5A2/src/gnu/usr.sbin/sendmail/sendmail/../libsmutil; make print-objdir" returned non-zero status
cc   -o sendmail -nostdlib -Wl,-rpath-link,/u5/release-1.5A2/usr/lib /u5/release-1.5A2/usr/lib/crt0.o /u5/release-1.5A2/usr/lib/crtbegin.o alias.o arpadate.o bf_torek.o clock.o collect.o conf.o control.o convtime.o daemon.o deliver.o domain.o envelope.o err.o headers.o macro.o main.o map.o mci.o milter.o mime.o parseaddr.o queue.o readcf.o recipient.o savemail.o sfsasl.o shmticklib.o srvrsmtp.o stab.o stats.o sysexits.o timers.o trace.o udb.o usersmtp.o util.o version.o -lwrap -L -lsmutil -L/u5/release-1.5A2/usr/lib -lgcc -lc -lgcc /u5/release-1.5A2/usr/lib/crtend.o
^Cmake: *** sendmail removed

i think this is proper.

Index: Makefile
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/gnusrc/gnu/usr.sbin/sendmail/sendmail/Makefile,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -r1.4 Makefile
14c14
< LIBSMUTILDIR!=        cd ${.CURDIR}/../libsmutil; make print-objdir
---
> LIBSMUTILDIR!=        cd ${.CURDIR}/../libsmutil; ${MAKE} print-objdir