> Well I'm still having a problem with some headers! The latest situation is
> when an external user mails someone here, the message hits the central
> mailhub which then sends it on to the users file store on Novell file
> servers. These run the Mercury MTA. If the local (to us) user then
forwards
> the message to one or more people (which all go via the mailhub), and that
> new recipient may or may not forward it again to one or more people, then
if
> one of the new recipients is an unknown user the mailhub sends the failure
> message back to the very original sender - who obviously has no idea about
> the failed user and never sent the message to them in the first place!
This is probably already known to you, but in case you're not aware of the
behaviour of Pegasus Mail, here's some possibly useful info (I assume you
are running Pegasus Mail as you mention Mercury/Netware).
Pegasus Mail has, IMHO, unusual semantics when forwarding messages. If you
elect not to edit the message before forwarding it, it will forward the
message on *as if it were from the original sender* - what other mail
packages might otherwise refer to as a "bounce". However, if you do choose
to edit the message, then it behaves according to what might be described as
normal forwarding rules, where the message does appear to be from the local
user.
Pegasus Mail does add headers to the message if it "bounces" it rather than
"forwarding" it (my terminology), so you may be able to alter Exim's
behaviour and check for messages with one of these extra headers in.. The
headers are as follows (email addresses changed to protect the innocent!):
Received: from ursa.cns.umist.ac.uk (ursa.cns.umist.ac.uk [130.88.210.1])
by nessie.mcc.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA28238
for <xxxxxxxx@???>; Sun, 9 Jan 2000 13:55:32 GMT
(envelope-from original.sender@???)
Received: from [130.88.116.40] (helo=fs2.ee.umist.ac.uk)
by ursa.cns.umist.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 1.92 #3)
for xxxxxxxx@???
id 127Ioe-000Lze-00; Sun, 9 Jan 2000 13:55:32 +0000
Received: from UK-AC-UMIST-EE-FS2/SpoolDir by fs2.ee.umist.ac.uk (Mercury
1.44);
9 Jan 100 13:55:47 GMT
Received: from SpoolDir by UK-AC-UMIST-EE-FS2 (Mercury 1.43); 9 Jan 100
13:55:28 GMT
Received: from UK-AC-UMIST-EE-FS2/SpoolDir by fs2.ee.umist.ac.uk (Mercury
1.43)
for <xxxxxxxx@???>; 9 Jan 100 13:55:28 GMT
Resent-from: xxxxxxxx@???
Resent-to: xxxxxxxx@???
Resent-Date: Sun, 9 Jan 100 13:55:28 GMT
[rest of original headers]
That message was auto-forwarded, i.e. that user @fs2 has all their mail
automatically forwarded (by Mercury, I assume) to nessie. I have also
noticed the little Y2K buglet in Mercury, by the way... :-)
A manual bounce looks like this:
Received: from serenity.mcc.ac.uk (serenity.mcc.ac.uk [130.88.200.93])
by nessie.mcc.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA03956
for <xxxxxxxx@???>; Wed, 16 Feb 2000 22:27:33 GMT
(envelope-from original@???)
Received: from [195.226.56.130] (helo=hilly.ninja.org.uk ident=root)
by serenity.mcc.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 1.92 #3)
for xxxxxxxx@???
id 12LCuy-000Aa2-00; Wed, 16 Feb 2000 22:27:33 +0000
Received: from holly.ninja.org.uk (holly.ninja.org.uk [195.226.56.162]) by
hilly.ninja.org.uk (8.9.2/8.6.9) with ESMTP id WAA02808 for
<xxxxxxxx@???>; Wed, 16 Feb 2000 22:27:30 GMT
Resent-Message-Id: <200002162227.WAA02808@???>
Received: from HOLLY/SpoolDir by holly.ninja.org.uk (Mercury 1.21);
16 Feb 100 22:27:55 BST
Received: from SpoolDir by HOLLY (Mercury 1.21); 16 Feb 100 22:27:48 BST
Resent-from: "xxxxxxxx" <xxxxxxxx@???>
Resent-to: xxxxxxxx@???
Resent-date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 22:27:46 BST
Received: from SpoolDir by HOLLY (Mercury 1.21); 16 Feb 100 16:33:31 BST
[rest of original headers]
This one's actually quite interesting in that Resent-Message-Id: appears to
have been generated by hilly (running Sendmail) and not by Pegasus/Mercury.
Also note that in both cases, the envelope-sender is set to the original
sender, and not the user who forwarded the message.
Hope that helps somewhat,
Regards,
Jonathan
