Re: exim configuration problem. why is it doing this?
On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 11:59:11PM -0700, Marc Wilson wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 06, 2002 at 02:31:28PM -0700, Paul E Condon wrote:
> > My problem is that every 15 minutes, the modem becomes active, the ppp
> > connection is established and held up for 30 to 60 s and then dropped. I
> > don't want dialing every 15 minutes. Why is it happening?
>
> Exim has a queue runner process that's kicked off every 15 minutes via
> cron. It is the job of this process to go through the list of queued
> messages and attempt to deliver them.
>
> I have no idea why it would need to connect unless there is actually
> something to deliver. Are you sure that you don't perhaps have a frozen
> message sitting on the queue? Exim will periodically unfreeze it and try
> to deliver it.
I have watched the progress of an outgoing email using mailq. I have
several open gnome terminals. After pressing 'y' in mutt to launch the
send, I repeatedly ran mailq. Mailq showed one queued message while
the dialing was being done, and while the handshaking was being done
(as indicated by RD/SD lights on the modem). And, a few seconds after
RD/SD activity stopped, mailq indicated that the message was no longer
in the queue.
And, there was, at no time, any other message indicated by mailq. Do I
need to give mailq a special option to display frozen messages?
But at the next appointed 15m time, there was a dial out, and exim
activity in syslog. So I think, it is not a frozen message.
>
> Another thing to look at might be name resolution. Does the box know it's
> own name? Exim is going to try to figure that out each time it starts up,
> and it may be trying to use your ISP's name server to do it, if it can't
> figure it out on its own.
This is an interesting possibility, but raises more questions:
I don't see any way of telling exim the hostname in the config
docs. Isn't it supposed learn this from system calls, or from reading
some 'well known' text file in /etc/ ?
>
> > I have not queued any outing email. Anyway, exim is configured to dial
> > out immediately when an email is sent from a MUA.
>
> Exim doesn't know anything about dialing a phone, so it can't be configured
> to dial out. No doubt you mean it's configured to immediately attempt
> delivery when a message is queued. Diald (or equivalent) is what's dialing
> the phone.
Of course. You are right that exim does not dial. I meant to indicate
that exim's functioning causes diald to dial out. The distinction is
probably important in thinking about what might be happening.
>
> > So there can't be a queue of messages waiting to go out.
>
> Certainly there can be. All that has to have happened is for Exim to not
> be able to deliver a message. On the next queue run, it's going to try
> again. That's what the queue runner process is for.
Again. I think I have looked at the queue, but maybe I failed to look
correctly. What, exactly should I type to get a display of what is in
the queue? I was told 'mailq'. Turns out I have to be root for that to
work, so OK, I su to root. But what else?
>
> > And, no one on the outside knows what my internal IP addresses are, so no
> > one can be sending me mail.
>
> Even if they knew your IP, they couldn't cause, from outside, your modem to
> dial just so that they could connect.
>
> --
> Marc Wilson
> msw@cox.net
>
>
> --
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--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@quiknet.com
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