[comp.mail.misc] Deferred mail on Sendmail.5.61

edmund@qualcom.qualcomm.com (The Silver Surfer) (03/10/90)

I seem to be having problems having sendmail.5.61 deferring mail, when
mail is sent to a local host that is down. The sendmail that I am using
now (sendmail.4.0), doesn't seem to have this problem.

I tried updating the sendmail.cf file using the m4 utilities in cf/cf for
a main machine, and still it didn't work. When I use the old sendmail using 
the new sendmail.cf file, the results are the same. It defers the mail like it's
supposed to.

This is what it looks like, sending mail to cancun (who's down) using
sendmail.4.0 in verbose mode:

edmund@cancun... Connecting to cancun.qualcomm.com via ETHERNET...
Trying 129.46.4.6... Connection timed out during user open with cancun.qualcomm.com
edmund@cancun... Deferred: Host cancun.qualcomm.com is down

The mailq looks like this:

		Mail Queue (1 request)
--QID-- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ------------Sender/Recipient------------
AA20315        1 Tue Mar  6 09:50 edmund
             (Deferred: Host cancun.qualcomm.com is down)
				  edmund@cancun

This is what senmdail.5.61 looks like in verbose mode with the same .cf file:

edmund@cancun... Connecting to cancun.qualcomm.com (tcpld)...
220 qualcom.qualcomm.com Sendmail 5.61-bcr/1.34 ready at Tue, 6 Mar 90 10:01:12 -0800
>>> HELO qualcom.qualcomm.com
553 Local configuration error, hostname not recognized as local
>>> QUIT
221 qualcom.qualcomm.com closing connection
edmund@cancun... Service unavailable: Bad file number
Saving message in /usr2/edmund/dead.letter
/usr2/edmund/dead.letter... Sent

The mailq is empty as well. Any ideas what it could be?

towfiq@interlan.Interlan.COM (Mark Towfigh) (03/18/90)

In article <1894@qualcom.qualcomm.com> edmund@qualcom.qualcomm.com
(The Silver Surfer) writes:

   I seem to be having problems having sendmail.5.61 deferring mail, when
   mail is sent to a local host that is down. The sendmail that I am using
   now (sendmail.4.0), doesn't seem to have this problem.

   [illustration of how the 4.0 version works]

   This is what senmdail.5.61 looks like in verbose mode with the same
   .cf file:

   edmund@cancun... Connecting to cancun.qualcomm.com (tcpld)...
   220 qualcom.qualcomm.com Sendmail 5.61-bcr/1.34 ready at Tue, 6 Mar 90 10:01:12 -0800
   >>> HELO qualcom.qualcomm.com
   553 Local configuration error, hostname not recognized as local
   >>> QUIT
   221 qualcom.qualcomm.com closing connection
   edmund@cancun... Service unavailable: Bad file number
   Saving message in /usr2/edmund/dead.letter
   /usr2/edmund/dead.letter... Sent

   The mailq is empty as well. Any ideas what it could be?

OK - this is a CF file problem.  Notice in the transaction above that
your machine, qualcom, is trying to connect to itself to deliver mail
to cancun.  That's bad, because it means that qualcom has failed to
realize that it *is* qualcom -- if Sendmail didn't pick this up, we
would have a mail loop.  Without knowing how your CF file is set up,
it's tricky to know what's going on.

Actually I take this back -- it seems, from your above script, that
qualcomm thinks it's connecting to cancun, and that it's surprised
when it winds up talking to itself.  Could it be that the host
information for your site is not entirely correct?  I'll bet it's a
/etc/hosts file vs. BIND discrepancy.

I'll bet other mail goes through fine, right?  Is it only mail for
cancun which is weird, or is this a general phenomenon?
--
Mark Towfigh, Racal Interlan, Inc.                 towfiq@interlan.Interlan.COM
W: (508) 263-9929 H: (617) 488-2818                       uunet!interlan!towfiq

  "The Earth is but One Country, and Mankind its Citizens" -- Baha'u'llah