Bug#397646: exim4-config: reportbug mail issue

[Blars Blarson]

In article <20061110011902.GI21192 at volo.donarmstrong.com> don at debian.org writes:
>Reportbug installs who do not have exim installed correctly should be
>using reportbug's built-in SMTP handling abilities and either relaying
>to their upstream smtp server or bugs.debian.org; the latter as the
>default if nothing else is selected.
>
>Since this is the way that reportbug works currently, I really don't
>see the problem. [Perhaps the only bug here is that it even asks
>whether to use the local smtp server in the "novice" case.]

bugs.debian.org isn't always willing to accept mail.  Besides the
times like last night when a denial of service attack[0] made it so no
mail was accepted for half an hour, spohr also uses greylisting.  I
don't think reportbug does mail queueing.

Also, some ISPs do not allow direct outgoing mail connections.

[0] Load average over 400 for a while, 25% idle time, 50% wait.  The
only unusuall thing running was many exim4 and procmail processes
starting and completing quickly.  My guess is spammers tried sending
so much spam at once that nothing got through.


-- 
Blars Blarson			blarson at blars.org
				http://www.blars.org/blars.html
With Microsoft, failure is not an option.  It is a standard feature.