[H-GEN] Mail @humbug.org.au going missing

[Bruce Campbell]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2000, Patrick Nichols wrote:

pat> I've been experiencing mail loss for mail sent to my pat at humbug.org.au
pat> address.  I was wondering what may be up?

Lets just recap what you've just done.

	Problem: Mail sent to my address is not consistently getting
	through.

	Solution: Send email to a list handled by the same machines which
	seem to be having a problem.

	Assumptions: 
		a) List email consistently gets through.
		b) The people who have the power to help me are on the
		   mailing list.

Hmmm.  Isn't that akin to:

	My car doesn't work.  I'll just drive it down to the local
	drive-in theatre to get it fixed by the local service station
	mechanic.

?


Lets analyse the problem logically.  To start with, if I send an email to
something at humbug.org.au, which machines handle it?

	$ host -t mx humbug.org.au
	humbug.org.au mail is handled (pri=100) by zerlargal.humbug.org.au
	humbug.org.au mail is handled (pri=100) by caliburn.humbug.org.au

Now which machines handle mail for the mailing lists?

	$ host -t mx lists.humbug.org.au
	lists.humbug.org.au mail is handled (pri=10) by zerlargal.humbug.org.au
	lists.humbug.org.au mail is handled (pri=10) by caliburn.humbug.org.au

Wow, they're both the same machine.  Therefore, sending mail to the lists
might have the same problem.  Hmmm, I'd better email the lists then, hmmm?

What other data do we have?

pat> Here are the headers from one of the test messages I got back which may be
pat> of help in diagnosing the problem.
pat> Received: from caliburn.humbug.org.au (caliburn.humbug.org.au
pat> [203.15.36.242])

Ah, so email sent to one of the machines does come back.  Therefore the
problem is with the other machine, 'zerlargal.humbug.org.au'.

This happens to be my machine.  Looking at it, I see that the cvs update
of the virtual domains (ie, 'humbug.org.au') has gone and munged the
permissions.  Again I might add.  Luckily, the design of the mailer that
I'm using, exim, means that mail caught by said problem is merely deferred
until the problem is fixed.  Mail is not lost.

So, you've been lucky.  The person who has the power to fix the problem is
actually reading the mailing lists which you chose to outline the problem
to.  Lets pretend, for the sake of the argument, that I don't read that
particular mailing list.  Hmmm.  Maybe someone who I know who does read
the lists may mention it to me in passing.  Maybe not.  Maybe you've sent
mail to a mailing list which I've never heard of, save that its hosted on
a machine that I administer.

If you were aware of email netiquette, you may be aware of RFC822 and
friends, which states:

     6.3.  RESERVED ADDRESS

          It often is necessary to send mail to a site, without  know-
     ing  any  of its valid addresses.  For example, there may be mail
     system dysfunctions, or a user may wish to find  out  a  person's
     correct address, at that site.

          This standard specifies a single, reserved  mailbox  address
     (local-part)  which  is  to  be valid at each site.  Mail sent to
     that address is to be routed to  a  person  responsible  for  the
     site's mail system or to a person with responsibility for general
     site operation.  The name of the reserved local-part address is:

                                Postmaster

     so that "Postmaster at domain" is required to be valid.

     Note:  This reserved local-part must be  matched  without  sensi-
            tivity to alphabetic case, so that "POSTMASTER", "postmas-
            ter", and even "poStmASteR" is to be accepted.

Next time something like this happens, the person with the power to fix
the problem may be out of the country for a few weeks, and only reading
personal and postmaster mail, not the mailing lists.  For me, this next
occurs in circa 25days when I head off to Korea for a week.

Required reading:

	http://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc0000/rfc0882.txt
	http://www.humbug.org.au/netiquette.html

Regards,

-- 
  Bruce.                                                         | VP/BOFH
  Infinite Monkeys.  Infinite Keyboards.  I see no Shakespeare.  |  HUMBUG



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