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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