[Pkg-exim4-users] two elementary questions

[David Liontooth]

Hi Mark,

Thanks, that's very helpful. I have it working now.

Marc Haber wrote:

>Hi,
>
>On Sun, May 15, 2005 at 08:15:04PM -0700, David Liontooth wrote:
>  
>
>>When I try to mail to a local user, I get "R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp
>>defer (111)"
>>    
>>
>
>So the system doesn't consider that mail local and tries to send to
>the smarthost.
>  
>
exim 3 has better text guiding naive users towards the "Internet"
choice, which is what I needed.  A hint indicating that "if you're
not sure, try this one" is very useful for naive users, and what
exim3 does was good enough in my case.

>>I have "dc_localdelivery=maildir_home", but it's obviously not
>>understood -- wrong syntax.
>>    
>>
>
>The problem is earlier. Your local delivery is not even being
>considered.
>
>  
>
Right, I realized that.

>>dc_eximconfig_configtype='smarthost'
>>dc_other_hostnames=''
>>dc_local_interfaces='127.0.0.1'
>>dc_readhost='mymachine.subnet.edu'
>>dc_relay_domains=''
>>dc_minimaldns='false'
>>dc_relay_nets=''
>>dc_smarthost='mail.subnet.edu'
>>CFILEMODE='644'
>>dc_use_split_config='false'
>>dc_hide_mailname='true'
>>dc_mailname_in_oh='true'
>>dc_localdelivery=maildir_home
>>    
>>
>
>Looks like you have been bitten by a change that was introduced in
>4.50-5. The local hostname is no longer automatically considered a
>local domain, see /usr/share/doc/exim4-config/NEWS.Debian.gz, first
>paragraph. Solution: Add all domain names which should have their
>e-mail locally delivered to dc_other_hostnames.
>  
>
I don't think I understand the details here -- after selecting
"Internet", I do get prompted for system name, and it then
appears as dc_other_hostnames='chianti' -- great! I suspect
my problem was that I kept chosing 'satellite' at the start --
but in fairness, it would have been extremely useful for me
to be warned that this would deprive me of getting mail from
cronjobs etc.

On packages I track regularly, I always read the new docs,
but on a core package like exim4, when I have no unusual or
special needs, I expect it to just work. Oh well.

>  
>
>>Or more simply: what could be preventing cronjobs from delivering
>>messages? In /etc/aliases I have
>>this:
>>
>># /etc/aliases
>>mailer-daemon: postmaster
>>postmaster: root
>>nobody: root
>>hostmaster: root
>>usenet: root
>>news: root
>>webmaster: root
>>www: root
>>ftp: root
>>abuse: root
>>noc: root
>>security: root
>>root: tna
>>
>>But that shouldn't affect mail from cronjobs, right? Those messages
>>should just go to their respective owners.
>>    
>>
>
>Mails from cronjobs are processed as any normal e-mail, so if you
>alias their recipient, the alias is used for that e-mail. But your
>issue is that the e-mail is not even being considered to be aliased
>since your exim doesn't think it's a local mail.
>
>Greetings
>Marc
>
>  
>
I appreciate your help and hope exim4 can be made somewhat
more user-friendly!

Cheers,
Dave