Re: [Exim] Testing vacation filters

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: Bruno Daniel
CC: exim-users, Dietrich.Eckert, postmaster, sabine
Subject: Re: [Exim] Testing vacation filters
On Mon, 27 Aug 2001, Bruno Daniel wrote:

> Some of our users complained about unsuccessful tests of their vacation filters
> when they sent the test mails from their own mailboxes.


There have always been problems when people test filters from their own
accounts. The most common is when the filter goes wrong, so the message
gets stuck. Or it causes a bounce that then gets stuck. It's amazing how
many people will just send another attempt when the first one doesn't
come through. The most attempts I have ever seen before the user sought
assistance was 14.

> I think this is because of the line
>
> "$header_from: does not contain $local_part@$domain and",
>
> that is contained in the "personal" condition.


That is there because people on the whole don't want autoresponses to
messages that they send, which happen to come back to themselves (for
whatever reason - e.g. an alias that points to them).

> Is there a way around this? We consider writing a web form for sending test
> mails from postmaster with reply-to to the user. Can you think of a more
> elegant way to solve the problem?


Sending test mails from another account is always the best way to test
filters. (Of course, you can do basic checks using -bf, but that doesn't
check the whole process.)

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