Re: [exim] Re: Bug#270735: exim4: Self-denial of mail servic…

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Autor: V. T. Mueller, Continum
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A: Andreas Metzler, exim-users, Greg Kochanski, 270735-forwarded
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Assumpte: Re: [exim] Re: Bug#270735: exim4: Self-denial of mail service
Hello,

> On 2004-09-09 Greg Kochanski <gpk@???> wrote:
> > Several of the settings in exim4 can easily lead to accidental
> > denial-of-service attacks on one's self.


Hm. Could it be that you also disconnected your PC's power switch
from the mainboard since it could cause computation to stop? ;-)

> > Specifically, setting deliver_queue_load_max, queue_only_load,
> > smtp_load_reserve all will completely stop mail delivery if a user
> > starts up some CPU-intensive program.     And, this can happen
> > easily -- in a scientific/university environment, it's not unusual
> > to start up a calculation that will take CPU-days to complete.

[..]

These services normally run on dedicated computer clusters. It would
appear odd to me if these machines would also be used for handling
of SMTP messages. Basically, it doesn´t matter if the machine handles
only locally generated messages or does other mail-related jobs, too.
If email is of importance, then it´ll be the admins job to take care
for proper settings in the MTA configuration.

Maybe there are other opinions out there, but I personally welcome
the unix-style behaviour that lack of thinking outside the computer
is not being compensated on the inner side. Probably we will have to
let go the idea of systems that do strictly what they´re "told" to
when compute power and software engineering have evolved accordingly.
Until that day I appreciate every system that bites my butt for every
single error I make. At least every system that also allows me to
clearly track down what caused the mishap.

The proposed features would surely make sense in somwhting like a
workstation version of exim but certainly not in a server-targeted or
general purpose kind of MTA. Well, when thinking about the relation
server/workstation installations of exim in quantities I somewhat
realize that my position is somewhat on the weak side... help! :-)

Regards,
vt
--
V. T. Mueller
Continum AG
Wentzinger Strasse 7a
79106 Freiburg i. Br.
http://www.continum.net
Tel.: +49 761 479409 70
Fax.: +49 761 479409 33
Mail: v.t.mueller@???