williams@nssdcs.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jim Williams (SYSGROUP)) (08/21/90)
I have suddenly started getting the following error message whenever I
try to send any mail. I have seen this before, a long time ago, but
I don't know now if we ever did find out what it was or if it just went
away. I've spent quite some time today pouring over the mh sources, but
I'm much more of an mh user than hacker, so I'm pretty lost. Any
suggestions? I tried restarting sendmail. The system, by the way, is
a Sun 4/280 running SunOS 4.0 (NOT 4.0.X).
% send -verbose -watch -draftf +drafts -draftm 1
-- Posting for All Recipients --
post: problem initializing server; [BHST] no servers available
send: message not delivered to anyone
% send -help # so you can see what options I have...
syntax: send [file] [switches]
switches are:
-alias aliasfile
-draft
-(draftf)older +folder
-(draftm)essage msg
-nodraftfolder
-filter filterfile
-nofilter
-[no]format
-[no]forward
-[no]msgid
-[no]push
-[no]verbose
-[no]watch
-width columns
-(help)
version: MH 6.6 #1[UCI] (ics) of Tue May 24 15:51:53 PDT 1988
options: [BSD42] [BERK] [TTYD] [DUMB] [MHE] [NETWORK] [BIND] [RPATHS]
[SBACKUP='"#"'] [SENDMTS] [SMTP]
Spoken: Jim Williams Domain: williams@nssdcs.gsfc.nasa.gov
Phone: +1-301-555-1212 UUCP: uunet!mimsy!williams
USPS: NASA/GSFC, Code 633, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Motto: There is no 'd' in "kluge"! It rhymes with "huge", not "sludge".jdpeek@RODAN.ACS.SYR.EDU (Jerry Peek) (08/21/90)
> I have suddenly started getting the following error message whenever I > try to send any mail. ...other stuff deleted... > % send -verbose -watch -draftf +drafts -draftm 1 > -- Posting for All Recipients -- > post: problem initializing server; [BHST] no servers available > send: message not delivered to anyone This question comes up a couple of times each year. Here's a copy of the most recent answer I could find. I hope no one minds my re-posting it. --Jerry Peek; Syracuse University Academic Computing Services; Syracuse, NY jdpeek@rodan.acs.syr.edu, JDPEEK@SUNRISE.BITNET +1 315 443-3995 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: pinkas@cad001.intel.com (Israel Pinkas ~) Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh Subject: Re: [BHST] error from post Message-ID: <PINKAS.89Nov6104908@cad001.intel.com> Date: 6 Nov 89 18:49:08 GMT Organization: Corporate CAD, INTeL Corporation, Santa Clara, CA Lines: 35 In-reply-to: bochner@lange.harvard.edu's message of 2 Nov 89 23:33:19 GMT Harry Bochner writes: > We've been having a problem mh on sun3's running SunOs 4.0. It gets into > state where any attempt to use comp or send produces: > > >post: problem initializing server; [BHST] no servers available > >send: message not delivered to anyone > > The problem is somewhat sporadic: consistent for a while, then it goes > away again. Rebooting seems to help for a while. Has anyone had > experience with this? > Thanks, > -- Harry Bochner > bochner@endor.harvard.edu The problem is that your sendmail daemon is dying. Look at the processes running on the machine. If sendmail is not running, that is the problem. On most BSD systems, any user can restart the daemon. I don't know why your sendmail is dying, but looking in that various log files might give you a clue. We discovered a problem caused by certain mail headers that caused sendmail to die. (Sorry, this was a long time ago, and I don't remember the details. The problem appears to have been fixed..) -Israel -- -------------------------------------- Disclaimer: The above are my personal opinions, and in no way represent the opinions of Intel Corporation. In no way should the above be taken to be a statement of Intel. UUCP: {amdcad,decwrl,hplabs,oliveb,pur-ee,qantel}!intelca!mipos3!cadev4!pinkas ARPA: pinkas%cadev4.intel.com@relay.cs.net CSNET: pinkas@cadev4.intel.com
marvit@HPLPM.HPL.HP.COM (Peter Marvit) (08/21/90)
Jerry's answer about [BHST no servers available] was essentially correct.
However, what this really means is: MH's post cannot connect to a running
sendmail over an SMTP port. (This, of course, assumes MH was compiles
with SMTP and SENDMTS.)
The potential problems:
1) Your local sendmail daemon is dying or not running for some
reason.
2) You use BIND and your local nameserver is not responding.
3) Your mtstailor has its "servers:" pointing to a non-existant
machine or a machine which is a) not reachable or b) not running
the sendmail daemon.
4) You're setting up a cluster and you encounter this on a
satellite. You must change your mtstailor 'servers:" line to be
the hostname of your root node or some central system whichis
running sendmail.
5) The gods are angry.
Any others which should be added to the list?
-Peter "No waiters available -- at a diner" Marvit
: Peter Marvit Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, CA (415) 857-6646 :
: Internet: <marvit@hplabs.hpl.hp.com> uucp: {any backbone}!hplabs!marvit :brunner@bullhead.uucp (08/29/90)
In article <9008211637.AA10788@hplpm.hpl.hp.com> marvit@HPLPM.HPL.HP.COM (Peter Marvit) writes: >Jerry's answer about [BHST no servers available] was essentially correct. >However, what this really means is: MH's post cannot connect to a running >sendmail over an SMTP port. (This, of course, assumes MH was compiles >with SMTP and SENDMTS.) > >The potential problems: > > 1) Your local sendmail daemon is dying or not running for some > reason. > > 2) You use BIND and your local nameserver is not responding. > > 3) Your mtstailor has its "servers:" pointing to a non-existant > machine or a machine which is a) not reachable or b) not running > the sendmail daemon. > >Any others which should be added to the list? I just experienced a combination of items 1 and 2. We've changed our domain and in remaking /etc/named.* on the primary server, the localhosts entry in /etc/named.hosts was munged. What should have read: loopback IN CNAME localhost. read loopback IN CNAME localhost.awdpa.ibm.com. This resulted in sendmail generating the following error message: NOQUEUE: SYSERR: getrequests: cannot bind: Address already in use Send/post then fail with a similar error message described in the original posting. Eric Brunner, Consultant, IBM AWD Palo Alto (415) 855-4486 inet: brunner@monet.berkeley.edu uucp: uunet!ibmsupt!brunner trying to understand multiprocessing is like having bees live inside your head.