On Thu, Jun 21, 2007 at 09:30:01AM +0100, Graeme Fowler wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 17:10 +0100, Philip Hazel wrote:
> > There *is* a retry section in the default Exim config.
>
> ...which is present in almost all of the packaged versions of Exim I've
> come across, unaltered.
I was not talking about the default exim config file, but suggesting a
default retry config when there is no retry section in the config file.
So this would be hardcoded in the software.
> > > If this section is missing no warning or error is logged
> >
> > If you remove the section, it is assumed you want no retries.
> >
> > > I suggest to add a warning to the panic log and/or a default retry
> > > setup.
> >
> > I am not sure this is right, but what do others think?
>
> I agree with Philip. There are several sections of the Exim config which
> it is possible to remove and still have a fully functioning system.
Dropping mails on the floor when they can't be delivered on the first
try is not "fully functional" in my book. There might be cases when this
is what people want (and they can configure their retry section to do
just that). All I am saying is that this is unusual and unexpected so it
should not be the default behaviour (or at least merit a warning).
I wouldn't have brought this up if there hadn't been two people I know
who independently fell into the same trap and then came to me (their
local exim "expert") to help them find out why Exim was not retrying
mails seemingly without any reason. So this is clearly a somewhat
surprising behaviour.
> Perhaps the docs need to be amended to state categorically that:
>
> Removal (or omission) of the retry section, or inclusion of the section
> with no rules, results in there being no retry attempts on any sort of
> error condition. All errors will, therefore, immediately be treated as
> permanent.
That would be the least we can do.
Jochen
--
Jochen Topf jochen@???
http://www.remote.org/jochen/ +49-721-388298
