Re: [EXIM] retry-database and tempfailures

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Author: David Shaw
Date:  
To: exim-users
CC: sendmail-bugs
Subject: Re: [EXIM] retry-database and tempfailures
On Mon, Aug 03, 1998 at 10:18:59AM +0100, Philip Hazel wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Aug 1998, Hans Morten Kind wrote:
>
> > Half my mainlog consisted of errors like
> > SMTP error [...] after MAIL FROM: [...] 421 Disk full
> > exim tried delivery every minute to these hosts. Is there any reason why
> > exim is not using the retry-database in such cases? The disk-full
> > situations are reported at different stages during the SMTP-dialogue,
> > some servers reply 4xx after MAIL FROM:, some after DATA.
>
> This is an example of a logical problem which I have noted in the past,
> but for which I haven't found a solution. At present, the receipt of a
> 4xx response to MAIL FROM or RCPT TO or DATA does not delay other
> messages to the same host, because Exim thinks it is a problem that is
> specific to this one message, and not to the host as a whole. (For
> example, it could be "quota exceeded" for the receiving user, or it could
> be some DNS delay in trying to verify the MAIL FROM argument.)


FWIW, sendmail has the same problem, though they solved it the other way
around - sendmail (using the persistent host status feature) will delay
*all* of the messages to the same host.

I think Exim's solution is better, as otherwise a problem in one message
to one user can effectively prevent any mail from one site to another from
moving.

David

-- 
    David Shaw  |  dshaw@???  |  WWW http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~dshaw/
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