On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> The logged message "SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection
> from" is unclear.
It means that, while Exim was receiving a message from that host, during
the phase of reading the message itself (the data), there was a timeout.
(During the phase of reading SMTP commands, it would say "command
timeout".)
> But the mailing list postings I read seem to indicate that this issue may
> be caused when trying to connect to a remote host (like a hotmail server)
> that has problems (versus a remote host that is sending to your own
> server).
No, this message is definitely associated with an *incoming* connection.
> For example, I have 246 of these entries for the same IP spread out over
> 11 hours without any corresponding message reception log entry. (The only
> previous logged message of a connection from that same IP is 21 hours
> earlier.)
If it's timing out, you won't have received any messages to log... :-)
> It would be useful if the log message indicated the Exim-assigned message
> ID (for cross-referencing). (On this particular system I am using
> exim-3.22-14.1 RPM.)
Exim has asssigned a message ID at this stage, but I didn't see the
point of logging it, because no message has been received. Of what use
could it be?
> It would be useful if the FAQ or log message indicated why and when this
> "SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection from" happens (like
> during or after RCPT TO or DATA for example).
It's during DATA. Maybe it should say "DATA timeout" instead of "data
timeout"? To be pedantic, you can't get an SMTP timeout _during_ RCPT.
It either receives RCPT, or it times out waiting for the next command
(which may or may not be RCPT).
> And it would be good if the spec or FAQ clearly said if
> smtp_receive_timeout actual relates to logged "SMTP data timeout (message
> abandoned) on connection from ..." message.
It applies to all "on connection from" messages, but they aren't all
data timeouts. Point noted for spec.
> Please consider adding a FAQ entry for "SMTP data timeout (message
> abandoned) on connection from ...".
Also noted.
> Anyways, I boosted it to 20 minutes and that doesn't seem to work. So I
> will enable further debugging and use tcpdump to watch connections.
You might also consider adding +smtp_connection to your log_selector
setting.
Philip
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
