On 25-Apr-00 at 11:07:23 Philip Hazel wrote:
> Suggestion: can you generate one of the troublesome messages by hand? If
> you can do this and run Exim in -d9 mode, it will list the original
> headers it received, before it did any rewriting or adding headers, etc.
>
Not really. Sending the message directly ('exim -d9 jhorne') works fine for
myself, root and the exim account itself.
Using queue_only mode the -H file shows:
12kSC7-0006UG-00-H
root 0 1
<root@???>
956756975 0
-ident root
-received_protocol local
-body_linecount 1
-deliver_firsttime
-local
XX
1
jhorne@???
159P Received: from root by bb.csd.plymouth.ac.uk with local (Exim 3.14 #1)
id 12kSC7-0006UG-00
for jhorne@???; Wed, 26 Apr 2000 14:49:35 +0100
014F From: root@bb
011* To: jhorne
033T To: jhorne@???
013 Subject: t77
018 Content-Length: 9
054I Message-Id: <E12kSC7-0006UG-00@???>
038 Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 14:49:35 +0100
As can be seen the From: header is just 'root@bb'. It seems that under
Solaris 8 (at least in our case) mailx is the culprit. It creates a From:
header using just the host name. In our case this results in 'root@bb'. Exim
is configured here to recognise various local host names, but all as FQDN's
(or no host/domain name at all), not just the host name on its own.
As Philip pointed out this may have arisen from the installation of Solaris
which asks for a host name, and then later for a domain name if you select
that you are using a naming service (DNS in our case). In our case we
specify the host name (bb) and then the domain name (csd.plymouth.ac.uk). In
Philip's case, since it caused problems, he entered the FQDN as the host
name. In that respect mailx is probably doing the same - i.e. using what it
thinks is the host name.
Neither /bin/mail or /bin/rmail gave any problems under Solaris 8 in sending
mail.
And now the twist - if I use mailx to send mail from my own account it
passes through exim on bb; through the University's mailhub (pandora) and to
my PC (all running exim 3.14). It arrives with a From: header of
'jhorne@bb'. Yet if I try and send mail from root or exim's own account it
gets through the bb exim but bounced at the mailhub (from the reject log):
2000-04-26 14:07:09 12kRX3-0007NQ-00 rejected from bb.csd.plymouth.ac.uk
[141. 163.17.224]: there is no valid sender in any header line (envelope
sender is <exim@???>)
Recipients: jhorne@???
P Received: from bb.csd.plymouth.ac.uk ([141.163.17.224])
by pandora.csd.plymouth.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.14 #1)
id 12kRX3-0007NQ-00
for jhorne@???; Wed, 26 Apr 2000 14:07:09 +0100
P Received: from exim by bb.csd.plymouth.ac.uk with local (Exim 3.14 #1)
id 12kRX3-0006lm-00
for jhorne@???; Wed, 26 Apr 2000 14:07:09 +0100
F From: exim@bb
T To: jhorne@???
Subject: t2
Content-Length: 25
I Message-Id: <E12kRX3-0006lm-00@???>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 14:07:09 +0100
* X-rewrote-original-recipient: jhorne@???
* X-rewrote-original-recipient: jhorne@???
* X-rewrote-original-recipient: J.Horne@???
-
In all exim configurations we have 'headers_sender_verify' and
'sender_try_verify' set. With mail sent from my account a Sender: header is
included (specifying the valid address of 'jhorne@???'), but for
exim and root there is no Sender: header, and since the From: header is
wrong (?), the mailhub rejects the message. Setting 'no_headers_checks_fail'
causes the message to be received.
So I guess the question now is why no Sender: header is added for root or
exim. We specify root as a 'never_user', but even changing this had no
effect.
John.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Horne, University of Plymouth, UK Tel: +44 (0)1752 233914
E-mail: jhorne@???
Finger for PGP key: john@???
