Tracking Email routing

[Andy Bradford]

Thus said Stephen Smith on Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:15:06 MDT:

> How do I find the queue and examine its contents?

Depends on the software, but since  this is sendmail, you should be able
to type  ``mailq'' and have  it return a list  of messages still  in the
queue.

> How do  I configure a  destination for  the bounce notices  that would
> return to vader since this is a relayed message?

This isn't  something that should  be configured  on the server.  If you
look at the log messages you will  see that the Envelope From address is
defined with ``from=''. In this case:

from=<cis at localhost.localdomain>

If you were to send an  email to cis at localhost.localdomain, where do you
think it would go?  Where do you think a bounce  message to this address
will be  delivered? Is your mail  server configured to handle  email for
localhost.localdomain?  Shouldn't this  be more  like cis at totacc.com  or
some other appropriate domain?

As  intimated  in  a  previous   email,  the  application  needs  to  be
configured  to use  a  From  address that  goes  somewhere  if you  want
to  receive  bounces.  Right  now,  bounces are  likely  being  sent  to
cis at localhost.localdomain which probably goes nowhere. Let me reiterate,
if  you  want  to  receive  the  bounces, then  you  need  to  have  the
application  send  email  From  an  email  address  that  actually  goes
somewhere. If  fixing the application (the  right thing to do)  isn't an
option,  then you  can configure  the mail  server (debatably  the wrong
thing  to do)  to handle  email  for localhost.localdomain  and have  it
deliver those messages somewhere.

So, are you becoming the new email administrator for this system? :-)

Andy
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