Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 12:40:16 -0500 (EST) From: Chuck <crtb@capecod.net> To: crtb@capecod.net, proot@horton.iaces.com Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Sending mail while PPP is up Message-ID: <199711071740.MAA05003@capecod.net>
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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 suggestion I've received more than any other is for the ip-up script to "sendmail -q" which will cause sendmail to start sending any queue. This solves my problem. I just needed a good dose of RTFM. >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. This isn't necessary, because pppd automatically executes a script named ip-up when the ppp link is up & ready for business. >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 Not sure if I understand this one. When I send mail, I think sendmail makes an end-to-end connection to the recipient's host. I'm not sure if sendmail ever sends anything to my ISP's mailhost, although mail sent to me comes in from that mailhost. >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 There's an idea. Hadn't tried that. I always thought POP was my only option to receive mail. Looks like good for an experiment. >-- >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 Thanks for some new ideas! Chuck Bacon -- crtb@capecod.net ABHOR SECRECY -- DEFEND PRIVACY
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