sendmail can lose forwarded mail
Jeff Stearns
jeff at fluke.UUCP
Wed Dec 14 11:43:35 AEST 1983
Index: usr.lib/sendmail 4.2BSD
Description:
Under certain conditions, sendmail will discard mail which is to be
forwarded to another machine.
Repeat-By:
Let there be two machines A and B, connected by ethernet.
Let there be a user U with accounts on both machines.
On machine A, let this user have a ~/.forward file which redirects
mail to "U at B"
Now have U log in on machine B and send mail to "U at A".
The mail will be discarded upon receipt at machine A.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have some additional clues. Here's an (electronically enhanced)
syslog transcript produced by the daemon sendmail which received the
letter at machine A. (I added the syslog() calls beginning with `--'
in order to produce additional debugging information.)
Note that the letter is never passed to any outgoing mailer for
forwarding or delivery.
/*
* Sendmail hears an incoming ethernet letter.
* It forks to read and process the letter.
*/
7588 sendmail: connected, pid=7588
7588 sendmail: : openx
7588 sendmail: AA07588: assigned id
7589 sendmail: : openx
/*
* The incoming letter is received via SMTP at machine A, and is
* assigned a queue id.
*/
7589 sendmail: AA07589: assigned id
7589 sendmail: AA07589: from=<jeff at tc-jeff>, size=172, class=0
7589 sendmail: --sendall: e=83080 mode=b
/*
* The received message is deposited in the mail queue.
*/
7589 sendmail: AA07589: queueup, qf=qfAA07589, df=dfAA07589
/*
* A child is forked to deliver the message in the background.
*/
7593 sendmail: in background, pid=7593
7593 sendmail: --sendall: Run through list and send everything...
7593 sendmail: ----sendall: mode=b
7593 sendmail: ----sendall: calling deliver(83080, 163716)
/*
* The child discovers that QDONTSEND is asserted for the
* recipient, so it makes no attempt to deliver the letter.
* (I don't know *why* QDONTSEND is set on this envelope.)
*/
7593 sendmail: --deliver, first user=`jeff' (QDONTSEND)
7593 sendmail: ----sendall: mode=b
7593 sendmail: ----sendall: calling deliver(83080, 163844)
7593 sendmail: --deliver, first user=`jeff at tc-jeff' (QDONTSEND)
/*
* The child now REMOVES THE LETTER FROM THE MAIL QUEUE!
*/
7593 sendmail: dropenvelope, id=AA07589, flags=0, pid=7593
7593 sendmail: AA07589: unlink dfAA07589
7593 sendmail: AA07589: unlink qfAA07589
7589 sendmail: finis, pid=7589
/*
* The parent removes the lock file, and everything's gone.
*/
7588 sendmail: AA07588: unlock
7588 sendmail: AA07588: unlink lfAA07588
Fix:
I know of none. Clearing the `e' (expensive mailer) flag for the ether
and local mailers does not help.
--
Jeff Stearns
John Fluke Mfg. Co. (206) 356-5064
P.O. Box C9090 Everett WA 98043
...!decvax!microsoft!fluke!jeff
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