[ILUG] List mailer errors

[Colm Buckley]

On Thursday 17 May 2001 19:30, you wrote:

> What happened here ? That is, I know what happened - mail.iol.ie's
> SMTP process couldn't fork, but why did I get notified of it ? I
> don't have a great understanding of list server software, but I
> would have thought that when a mail from a list server gets bounced
> for whatever reason, it should just get thrown, or do SMTP servers
> in general not respect

Yes, in theory mail errors should get sent back to the envelope MAIL
FROM address, which in the case of the ILUG lists is a program which
tries to parse error messages and make intelligent decisions.
However, some MTAs are configured to send errors back to the address
mentioned in the "From" or "Sender" fields *in* *the* *message*, which
is wrong behaviour, but there's not much I can do about it.

> What is nuvotem.iol.ie - is it a mailer used by tuatha or what ?

No, it looks like it's a secondary mail server for someone on the
list.  Lugh was unable to reach the primary, so it contacted a
secondary and sent the mail off.  At some later point, the secondary
tried to send to the primary, got an error, and gave up, sending an
error message (incorrectly) to the mail's original author (you) rather
than to the list manager.

            Colm

-- 
Colm Buckley @ NewWorld Commerce
Business: +353 1 4334334  / colm at nwcgroup.com / http://www.nwcgroup.com/
Personal: +353 87 2469146 / colm at tuatha.org / http://www.tuatha.org/~colm/
Friends may come and go, but enemies tend to accumulate.