steve@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk (Steve Platt) (07/25/89)
| Every so often incoming uucp mail gets as far as our machine, but then | stays in /usr/spool/mqueue as a df... file with no corresponding qf... | Has it happened to you? Have you overcome it? Yes and no (in that order!) We have had trouble like this for a long time. I also found core dumps from sendmail in the mqueue directory and incomplete logs in the syslog file - ie just one line with sendmail announcing it was starting up. As sendmail is setuid, it doesn't always core-dump of course... It seemed (sometimes at least) to be related to "domain unknown" errors. The most recent example looked like an attempt for our system to send a "return receipt" acknowledgement to an address with no known domain in it - instead of the local postmaster getting sent a "domain unknown" error report mailed back, sendmail coredumped. We also noticed that users "mailing" to unknown domains using Mail got the "domain unknown" message from sendmail printed on their terminal then instead of a dead.letter file or a return mail message, there was nothing - just another "df" file in mqueue; and if the user concerned was in fact root, then a "core" file too. Sorry the above is so long and rambling, I just hope it jogs someone's memory somewhere!
andrew@stl.stc.co.uk (Andrew Macpherson) (07/26/89)
| | It seemed (sometimes at least) to be related to "domain unknown" errors. | The most recent example looked like an attempt for our | system to send a "return receipt" acknowledgement to an | address with no known domain in it - instead of the local | postmaster getting sent a "domain unknown" error report | mailed back, sendmail coredumped. | | We also noticed that users "mailing" to unknown domains | using Mail got the "domain unknown" message from sendmail | printed on their terminal then instead of a dead.letter | file or a return mail message, there was nothing - just | another "df" file in mqueue; and if the user concerned | was in fact root, then a "core" file too. There is a known bug, if you are copying errors to postmaster: andrew.findlay@ Fri Feb 10 11:47:00 1989 To: andrew@stl Subject: Patch for Sendmail 5.61 has the same strcmp(NULL) bug that the previous version did. Any bounced mail causes a seg violation on a Sun. Patch follows: *** savemail.c.BAD Sat Feb 4 15:55:42 1989 --- savemail.c Fri Feb 10 10:49:40 1989 *************** *** 406,412 **** to = buf; for (q = returnq; q != NULL; q = q->q_next) { if (q->q_alias == NULL) ! if (strcmp(q->q_paddr, PostMasterCopy) == 0) cc = q->q_paddr; else { /* Not Postmaster; already on the To: line? */ --- 406,413 ---- to = buf; for (q = returnq; q != NULL; q = q->q_next) { if (q->q_alias == NULL) ! if ( (PostMasterCopy!=NULL) && ! (strcmp(q->q_paddr, PostMasterCopy) == 0)) cc = q->q_paddr; else { /* Not Postmaster; already on the To: line? */ --------------------------------------------------------------------- | From Andrew Findlay at Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK | | Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk phone: +44 895 74000 x2512 | --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Andrew Macpherson PSI%234237100122::andrew andrew@stl.stc.co.uk - or - ...!mcvax!ukc!stl!andrew "It is always a great mistake to treat the individual on the chance that he may become a crowd" -- Mr Justice Codd: (A.P.Herbert)
msir@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Mark Sirota) (07/27/89)
In article <6053.8907251628@kocab.mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk> steve@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk (Steve Platt) writes: > I also found core dumps from sendmail in the mqueue directory > and incomplete logs in the syslog file - ie just one line > with sendmail announcing it was starting up. This reminds me. We are running Sun's sendmail.mx version 4.1, which was released last December. It does not seem to be sending messages to /usr/spool/mqueue/syslog, like our old sendmail did. Instead, sendmail messages are sent to the console. This is happening under both SunOS 3.5 and SunOS 4.0. Is there some way to remedy this situation? Thanks in advance. -- Mark Sirota - University of Rochester, Rochester, NY Internet: msir@cc.rochester.edu Bitnet: msir@uordbv.bitnet UUCP: {decvax,harvard,ames,rutgers}!rochester!ur-cc!msir
evan@plxsun.uucp (Evan Bigall) (12/14/90)
Well, due to the purchase of a sun that refused to speak ether uucp to any other box in the building I have been dragged (kicking and screaming) into the wonderfull world of sendmail. After two long weekends, everything seems to be working pretty ok. I am even starting to enjoy the more flexible addressing it gives us. I have one problem left (I hope), I think the solution must be obvious, but I'mjust not seeing it. How do I make sendmail use the pathalias database? /Evan
wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) (12/18/90)
evan@plxsun.uucp (Evan Bigall) writes of a Sun running sendmail: >I have one problem left (I hope), I think the solution must be obvious, but >I'mjust not seeing it. How do I make sendmail use the pathalias database? I assume you are running Sun's sendmail. There is no simple way that I know of to do pathalias in Sun's sendmail itself. You can install the smail package and have Sun's sendmail invoke the smail agent for uucp mail. This isn't as powerful as doing the pathalias from within sendmail itself. You can get pathalias support in the PD version of sendmail from uunet.uu.net (uunet to those poor uucp-only sites ;-)). The file is: -rw-rw-r-- 1 revell 1071634 Oct 17 11:46 sendmail-5.65+IDA-1.3.5.tar.Z It will optionally do DNS (nameserver) and pathalias lookups. It sings it dances, it is elaborate as all hell. Be prepared to spend a few days on understanding it. It is well spent time. -wolfgang -- Wolfgang Rupprecht wolfgang@wsrcc.com (or) uunet!wsrcc!wolfgang Snail Mail Address: Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524
jstewart@ccs.carleton.ca (John Stewart) (12/18/90)
In article <1990Dec17.172318.5341@wsrcc.com> wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) writes: >evan@plxsun.uucp (Evan Bigall) writes of a Sun running sendmail: >>I have one problem left (I hope), I think the solution must be obvious, but >>I'mjust not seeing it. How do I make sendmail use the pathalias database? > >I assume you are running Sun's sendmail. There is no simple way that >I know of to do pathalias in Sun's sendmail itself. I provide pathalias information to sendmail on our Sun mailserver machine via an NIS (Yellow Pages) map. (T) Yellow Pages is a trademark of the humourless folks at British Telecom. -- --- Some programmers create Artificial Intelligence; the rest of us have to settle for Artificial Stupidity.