Re: tlug: mail

["Eric Standlee" <fwiw3980@example.com>]

Rex,
Before I got your email, I decided to move over to Red Hat.  It was a
surprizingly quick install.  I installed 4.1 off of a demonstration install
which I got a while ago in a package of Sunsite Linux disks from
www.cdrom.com I think.

My current situation is sendmail 8.8.4, pppd 2.2, and fetchmail (forgot the
version).  I have gotten the RH ppp-on, ppp-on-dialer, ppp-off scripts to
work as far as getting me online.

You asked "Are you having a problem sending mail or receiving mail?"  The
answer is both.  Now that I am using sendmail, I just ppp-on'd and then ran
mailq.  But, when I checked /var/spool/mqueue it still had the outgoing
emails...  And, fetchmail is still not getting anything off my pop
servers...

>1.  Can you pick up mail via POP from your ISP?
I am not sure what it means when you say that mutt doesn't require X.  As
far as I know, all of the soft I am using for mail is non-X.  But, I still
haven't gotten mutt.  Lazy?  Busy?

>2.  Can you deliver mail locally?
Yes, local mail works just fine.
>2.  Can you deliver mail received via smtp?
Yes, the telnet localhost smtp worked just like you said.  I never knew you
could do that.

So, I guess that since local, and smtp work, I have to work on my fetchmail
rc file.  Or just get mutt somewhere.  Is that in a RH RPM?  I recently
installed alien.rpm, but I don't know how that works yet.  But, if alien can
read the deb or slack package with mutt, point me in the right direction for
mutt.  Is it possible it is on my Sunsite Linux Archives cdrom?

Thanks Rex and Karl-Max.  I definitely have learned a lot about ISP mail,
mail in general, and networking through this process,
Eric S. Standlee
Kashihara-shi <Kintetsu Yamato Yagi>
Nara, Japan
e-w.standlee@example.com
Never take life seriously.  Nobody gets out alive, anyway
-----Original Message-----
From: Rex Walters <rex@example.com>
To: Tokyo Linux Users Group <tlug@example.com>
Date: Thursday, July 02, 1998 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: tlug: mail



>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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--------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 17 July, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
Next Meeting: 8 August, Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate 12:30
featuring Linux on multiple platforms:
i386, Sparc, PA-Risc, Amiga, SGI, Alpha, PalmPilot, ...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp