Re: [exim] Bug in exim

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Author: Russell Stuart
Date:  
To: Bill Hacker
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] Bug in exim
On Thu, 2005-02-10 at 08:04, Bill Hacker wrote:
> To the extent Exim is configured to hand-off traffic to a scanner,
> *attempts* to do so, *believes it has done so*


No exim does not believe it has successfully delivered the email
to the LMTP transport - look at the logs. In fact for every message
dropped, exim's last word on the subject is:

2005-02-08 15:05:39 1CyMd7-00038v-PP == dsayer@??? <dsayer@???> R=virus_scan_local T=virus_scan_local defer (-1): LMTP error after initial connection: 421 4.3.0 aveserver is not running. Envelope back to queue.

The promised retry never happens. In every case bar one when
this message appears the promised retry doesn't happen for
one recipient. It does happen for all other recipients of that
same email, and they do eventually get the message. This is
clearly a bug in exim.

Just to make it clear, some exim configs silently drop emails
they believe are spam or viruses. If mine does this, its a bug.
As far as I am concerned, for every email given to exim, there
must be one of two outcomes:

1.  The email gets handed over to the MTA's of all recipients
    successfully.


2.  The sender gets told in some manner that a delivery failed,
    either by an error at SMTP time, or by a bounce message.


Yes, I do understand the term sender is ambiguous, but in this
context it means *someone* gets notified the email hasn't been
delivered - I am not too particular about who.

Just to repeat: with the exception of bounce messages if my
config doesn't force one of those two outcomes to occur, then I
have a bug in my config. If you can spot one please tell me!