Re: [Exim] SMTP errors

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: Alex King
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] SMTP errors
On Sun, 10 Dec 2000, Alex King wrote:

> I have a setup where a central mailserver running exim distributes mail
> to a number of dial-up servers. I am getting errors in a number of
> cases (less than 1%):
>
>       SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data: host
>       xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]: 552 Header line
>       is ridiculously overlong

>
>       SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data: host
>       yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy [yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy]: 552 Header line
>       is ridiculously overlong

>
> It is fairly clear what is going on, the sending process is sending
> the message body while the receiving process still thinks it's in the
> headers.


The body would have to have every line starting with white space, but
maybe it does.

> I haven't checked all cases, but I think the receiving machines are
> running exim 2.05 (debian slink), whereas macines running exim 3.12
> (debian potato) are OK. The sending process is exim 3.12


The way very large headers are handled was changed. I suspect the
message *does* have a very long header line (over 8K). Some idiotic
messages that list hundreds of recipients have been seen where this is
true. In more recent Exims, the size of the entire header is limited,
instead of limiting each individual header line.

-- 
Philip Hazel            University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@???      Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.