Re: tlug: mail

[Rex Walters <rex@example.com>]

On Mon, Jun 29, 1998 at 06:22:55PM +0900, Eric Standlee wrote:
> Since I am connected to the internet, and can send mail from my Linux Box
> and can view web pages via Lynx; I assume that my mail problem is with my
> mail set up, but I am at a loss.
> 
> I connect just fine via fetchmail to my pop servers, but they either don't
> get mail or they lose it or they cannot transfer it to my MTA (smail via the
> /usr/lib/sendmail -oem).
> 
> Any hints.  I am certain that since most of my problems up until now have
> been rather simple in hind-sight, that this problem is probably too simple.
> That is why I am missing the solution.
> 
> please help me escape M$ to the greatest extent that I can,

There's a sentiment I understand.  :-)

I'm not sure I understand your problem, though.  Are you having a problem
sending mail or receiving mail?   What do the logs show?

Electronic mail is one of my favorite things to fool around with, so I
can't help replying.

I would debug as follows:

1.  Can you pick up mail via POP from your ISP?

    I'd just use a mail client that speaks POP directly to test this (or
    just telnet to the pop port of your ISP's server).  [I use the
    "mutt" mailer myself -- see "http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~me/mutt/".  Mutt
    can pick up POP mail directly (and doesn't require X).]

    Leave fetchmail alone for the moment.

2.  Can you deliver mail locally?

    Using whatever mail client you normally use, can you send mail from
    one user on your home Linux machine to another user?  
    
    Many clients deliver mail by sending it to binmail (either directly
    or via sendmail), procmail (sometimes via sendmail), or whatever (a
    very few even check the return status, but that's another story
    altogether).  A few programs send to the smtp port of the local
    machine (fetchmail being the most obvious example).  Both delivery
    mechanisms (stdin to the delivery program, or via smtp) must work.

    One of the confusing things about your message is that you mention
    both smail and sendmail.  I've never used smail, but my
    understanding is that it is both a mail transport agent (MTA) and a
    mail delivery agent (MDA) -- i.e. that it replaces sendmail
    entirely.  Many programs use "/usr/lib/sendmail -oem" (or
    /usr/sbin/sendmail) to send mail locally, but if you are using smail
    that shouldn't be necessary (I think).

    I myself use qmail (my world revolves around modularity).  It's been
    a while since I've been forced to muck with sendmail, but here goes:
    
    I *think* the best test of local delivery on a sendmail machine is
    to type:

	% cat | /usr/sbin/sendmail -oem localuser
	To: localuser
	Subject: test1

	<CTRL-D>	

    "localuser" must be the name of a valid user on your machine (i.e.
    listed in /etc/passwd).  After running this, the mail should appear
    in /var/spool/mail/localuser.  If it doesn't, try the following:

    1) "grep '^M' /etc/sendmail.cf" -- you should see a mailer defined
       named "local" or somesuch that calls /bin/mail.  If not, it
       probably calls procmail but your system might be really weird and
       configured for something else.

    2) Assuming /bin/mail, try:
	
	% cat | /bin/mail localuser
	To: localuser
	Subject: test2

	<CTRL-D>

       Again, the mail should appear in /var/spool/mail/localuser.  If
       binmail delivers okay, and the sendmail test above failed, your
       sendmail.cf file is seriously broken.

2.  Can you deliver mail received via smtp?

    Assuming local deliveries worked okay above, you need to see if
    somebody throwing mail at your machine via smtp has a chance.

    Try the following:

	% telnet localhost smtp
	% # or equivallently: "telnet 127.0.0.1 25"
	Trying 127.0.0.1 ...
	Connected to localhost.
	Escape character is '^]'.
	220 mybox.mydomain Sendmail blah blah (cracker candy)
     -> helo howdydo
	250 mybox.mydomain Hello howdydo blah blah
     ->	mail From: <localuser>
	250 <localuser>... Sender ok
     ->	rcpt To: <localuser>
	250 <localuser>... Recipient ok
     ->	data
	354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
     ->	To: <localuser>
     ->	Subject: test4
     ->
     ->	This is a test of the emergency broadcast system, this is only a
     ->	test.
     ->	.
	250 Mail accepted
     ->	quit
	%

    [You enter the indicated lines above.]

    Again, mail should be delivered okay.  
    
    If you can't even telnet to the smtp port (port 25), make sure that
    sendmail is running in daemon mode.  Type "ps auxww | grep
    sendmail".  You should see a sendmail process running with options
    like "/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -q 15m".  If not, check the logs for
    error messages, and ensure that your boot scripts start sendmail
    correctly.

    Since you mentioned smail, it's possible that sendmail won't be
    running and that smail is handling incoming SMTP traffic.  You'll
    have to go to the smail documentation for help.

If you've made it this far, you should be able to get fetchmail to
connect to your ISP, grab your mail, and deliver it with a simple
.fetchmail recipe (man fetchmail).  If you suspect your ISP is losing
your mail, why are they still your ISP?  :-)

It's possible that I've misunderstood your problem and that retrieving
mail via fetchmail works fine, but you can't send outbound mail.  That
is equally complex, and may involve (shudder) mucking about with
/etc/sendmail.cf.   Smail should be much easier to set up for outbound
mail than sendmail (indeed, I think that is the entire point).  Qmail
(IMHO) is also pretty easy to set up.

For what it's worth, my home machine is configured as follows:

    o Sendmail completely, irrevocably, happily removed from the system.

    o Qmail 1.01 installed (I'd go with 1.03 today, but haven't bothered
      to upgrade at home yet).

    o Outbound mail is queued in a special maildir.

    o My ppp startup scripts invoke fetchmail to periodically query my
      ISP for any incoming mail (delivering it via smtp to qmail for
      delivery if there is any).

    o My ppp startup scripts also (continually) invoke serialmail to 
      transfer any queued mail in the special maildir above to my ISP's
      mail server via SMTP.

This works extremely well for me.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
-- 
Rex
    
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