Re: [exim] retry => reroute? apparently

On Fri, 2010-03-19 at 17:58 -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-03-19 at 17:53 -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> > If a message is deferred because of transport problems, does it get
> > re-routed when it is retried?
I tried testing exim 4.69-9 on Debian Lenny.
Mail to ross@???.
.forward file "deliver ross@???" (no machine at that IP).
MAIN_ALLOW_DOMAIN_LITERALS=yes (Debian-specific way to enable IP literal
addressing and a corresponding router).

The message fails and sits in the queue.

Experiments, using exim -qf, show
1. Routing is repeated on the original edress ross@???.
So the answer to my original question is yes. I had assumed that
routing was done on the edress that failed the transport, i.e.,
ross@???, but it is done on the *original* edress.
2. To match an ip literal, e.g., in a redirect router, use
domain = [192.168.8.12]
I tried it without the brackets first; they are necessary.

I think this means I can correct the routing on retry simply by
redefining my .forward file to deliver somewhere else.

As a side note, the debug messages seem to indicate that no failure
information is being cached for the domain literal addresses; I'm not
sure why.

Ross
> >
> > I can't tell from the manual what the behavior is. It refers to a
> > "delivery attempt"; I can't tell whether that's a complete rerun of
> > message handling or just of the transport. The manual also says that
> > transports manage their own retries, which suggests they might just
> > re-attempt the delivery.
> >
> > Roger West's example (thanks for the reference) from 2010-03-09 seems to
> > imply rerouting occurs on retry, though it's not clear exactly how he
> > forced the mail off the queue.
> >
> > Searching around, I also found a message that seemed to imply the
> > routing was permanent--sorry can't find it now.
> Found it:
> In the same thread of March 9, Phil Pennock wrote "Once a mail has been
> routed, it remembers the routing."
> >
> > Ross Boylan
> >
> >
> P.S. I'd appreciate cc's because list mail goes into a queue at the
> moment--hence my interest in rerouting it.
>