Re: [Exim] system_aliases and delivery problem

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Author: Simon Williams
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] system_aliases and delivery problem
* On Fri, Jul 12, 2002 at 01:22:36AM BST, Miles Davis <miles@???> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 12, 2002 at 01:03:25AM +0100, Simon Williams wrote:
> >
> > As far as I understand it, Exim will see that you are trying to send
> > to a local user 'miles', which is converted to 'miles@xenon' by the
> > aliases file. It will take xenon and look for any MX records for it,
> > If there are no MX records for it, Exim will look for an A record
> > for it. If there are no A records for it, the message should be
> > bounced back to the envelope-from address.
>
> But before it looks for MX records, it tests to see if it's in
> local_domains, right?


I believe so; I just missed that part when I was typing the
explanation.

> That's where it's not matching xenon because I only
> had xenon.stanford.edu in there...doesn't it / shouldn't it expand the
> hostname fully, or is this it's normal behavior?


It seems to, from my tests, although I'm not sure if it's supposed or
not.

> Anyhoo, xenon has no MX record but (of course) has an A record.


If xenon is the local machine, then I don't think that should come
into it anyway.

> > I have run a test here, which I believe relates to your situation.
> > In my case, I aliased the local user 'miles' to 'simon@avatar', where
> > avatar is a machine on my network:
>
> Change that test in one small way -- on avatar, put that alias in the
> system aliases and try it -- it gets messed up in the second pass through
> dnslookup router, I believe.


When I do that, the message arrives successfully. If, however, I
remove 'search no-dns-yet.org.uk' from /etc/resolv.conf, the message
bounces, with this showing in the logs:

2002-07-12 14:53:05 17T0r3-00003x-00 <= root@??? U=root
P=local S=460 id=20020712135305.GA242@avatar
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r3-00003x-00 ** simon@avatar
<miles@???>: unrouteable mail domain "avatar"
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r4-00003z-00 <= <> R=17T0r3-00003x-00 U=mail
P=local S=1315
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r3-00003x-00 Error message sent to
root@???
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r3-00003x-00 Completed
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r4-00003z-00 => |/usr/bin/procmail
(simon@???) <root@???> D=userforward
T=address_pipe
2002-07-12 14:53:06 17T0r4-00003z-00 Completed

It was delivered to user simon, as root is aliased to simon in
/etc/aliases, so all looks well with both of those.

Adding avatar to local_domains makes everything work ok.

> > In my case, this happens:
> >
> > simon@dustpuppy:~$ /usr/exim/bin/exim -bt miles
> > simon@avatar
> >     <-- miles@???
> >   envelope to: simon@???
> >   router = dnslookup, transport = remote_smtp
> >   host avatar.no-dns-yet.org.uk [192.168.0.4]
> > simon@dustpuppy:~$

> >
> > I have 'qualify_domain' set to 'no-dns-yet.org.uk' (Exim 4.04) and
> > have 'avatar.no-dns-yet.org.uk' as a part of 'local_domans' on avatar
> > (Exim 3.32).
>
> <snip>
>
> > In your case, that does the following show?:
> >
> > /path/to/exim -bt miles
>
> Xenon 68 # exim -C /usr/exim/configure.test -bt miles
> miles@xenon
>     <-- miles@???
>   envelope to: miles@???
>   router = localuser, transport = local_delivery

>
> Looks right, no? And yet, the email disappears. :(


That looks right to me.

> > Is there anything in the mainlog (or whatever you have called it) to
> > show what Exim is doing with the messages? Are there any logs on
> > xenon which show anything happening to the messages?
>
> Well, it shows a little:
>
> 2002-07-11 17:21:10 17SoBJ-00040u-00 <= root@??? U=root
> P=local S=315
> 2002-07-11 17:21:10 17SoBJ-00040u-00 Completed


Odd. Well, if Phillip says it's a bug, then it's probably a bug,
although that doesn't explain why it works on my system running Exim
3.32.

As Phillip says, you can try to add xenon to local_domains, which
should work.


--
 Simon Williams <simon@???> **** PGP: 099977D0
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