linscomb@NGP.UTEXAS.EDU (Thomas J. Linscomb) (10/30/86)
> Rumor has it that vms mail in version 5 of vms isn't going to allow > forwarding to a distrubtion list of any kind. Is this true? Are we > going to lose distribution lists altogether? Hey DEC, what gives. > Distribution list are *used* by us poor helpless users. It's not nice to > take away a feature that people might be using! If it is going to go > away, will similar functionality replace it somewhere else in a vms > bundled product? If this is *not* true then let's stop this rumor here. > If anything, vms mail needs *more* functionality not less. > > Chris Johnson Northeastern University >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Does anyone besides us set up userid's with in authorize or mailuaf that > forward to mailing lists? In other words sending mail to STAFF > would cause mail to be distributed to half a dozen people? I have a problem > with doing it across networks. If STAFF is on VAX1, and I'm on VAX2, > and I send mail from VAX2 to VAX1::STAFF the first 2 people on the list > get the message, and anyone who had forwarding set gets the message regardless > of where they were. No one else does. The nonpriv account gets a timeout > error (actually I only got a timeout once). Usually it gets ABORTED LINK with > no indication as to why. After 4 and half months of explaining this > to DEC, the last month of it to a very helpful person in colorado who spent > a week calling my system, DEC decided the following 2 things: > a) It's broke. > b) It's not supported so they could care less. > Any ideas on a way to fix this? It only happens when the transport is > DECNET, i.e. bitnet mail, csnet mail, etc all work fine with the forwarded > lists, cause they are executed locally. Also the following syntax works: > @vax1::staff.lis (if list contains host::user addresses, ours doesn't) > The above syntax executes the list processing on vax2. > The following doesn't work: > vax1::@staff.lis > (execution done by vax 2). > -Ron Jarrell Chris, Now you know why certain MAIL distribution functions MAY be disabled in future VMS versions. The MAIL-11 protocal does not work (guarantee delivery) when the remote receiver is a distribution list. VMS development probably uses mail distribution lists as much as you do, I doubt that they would totally throw it away. Ron, As for solving the above problem, I would suggest that you try and look at NETSERVER.LOG to see why the receiving MAIL process is aborting. I suspect that one of the receivers can no longer get mail. You might try rotating the names on the distribution list. This might provide more information so that you can narrow down which receiver is causing the problem. ---------- --Thomas Linscomb aka linscomb@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU aka t.linscomb@agl.UTEXAS.EDU --Advanced Graphics Lab/Computation Center/The University of Texas --Austin, TX 78712 phone: 512/471-0274 --uucp: ...seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!linscomb linscomb@ut-ngp.UUCP --bitnet: cctj001@utadnx