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Date:      Fri, 7 Nov 1997 09:52:31 -0600 (CST)
From:      "Paul T. Root" <proot@horton.iaces.com>
To:        crtb@capecod.net (Chuck)
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG, crtb@capecod.net
Subject:   Re: Sending mail while PPP is up
Message-ID:  <199711071552.JAA07625@horton.iaces.com>
In-Reply-To: <199711062009.PAA01228@capecod.net> from Chuck at "Nov 6, 97 03:09:29 pm"

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In a previous message, Chuck said:
> On my modem-bound FreeBSD-2.2.2R system, a cron job running every two
> hours brings up a PPP session, and fetches mail via POP from my ISP.
> 
> I read and respond to that mail at an irregular schedule, so that
> often when I send mail, the PPP link is down.  I sometimes get the
> message "Cannot send mail for five days", and wonder frequently if
> the mail ever got sent.
> 
> The question: is there a signal or some other way I can communicate
> with sendmail which will cause it to attempt to send immediately?
> If so, I can put the appropriate kill command in the script which
> fetches mail.

There are several things that you can do with sendmail. 

The first is have the sendmail daemon queue frequently, ie. more often
than the timeout period of your ppp. 

The second is the option - DialDelay (first came in 8.7). This allows
you to wait for the ppp link to come up before it attempts to send
stuff out. That way, when sendmail tries to send out, and ppp starts
up, it will wait for a given time period before it starts trying.

The third is ETRN directive. This comes in on port 25 and makes sendmail
immediately process the queue to the given machine.

So when ppp comes up, you'd run a script something like this:

#!/bin/sh

telnet localhost 25 <<EOF
ehlo localhost
ETRN mailrelay.myisp.net
EOF


If you received mail via sendmail from your ISP, then you'd want to
do something similar to it:

telnet mailrelay.myisp.net 25 <<EOF
ehlo my.domain
ETRN my.domain
EOF


-- 
The baby threw up all over my dress and we had to go home first to change.
--from "Excuses, Excuses" *the* compendium of excuses by Leigh W. Rutledge



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