"Michael D. Schleif" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > However, correct me if I'm wrong, it looks to me that -- initially -- > fetchmail gets an email message from one of my many remote mail servers, > and passes it off to exim for local processing. > > The To: header is mangled, and noted, and 550 is returned. > > Then, somehow -- this is the part that I do not understand, and that I > want to *STOP* happening -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] > attempts to send an email -- containing this 550 error -- to some > address unknown to me. Note: the URL is only one (1) of many > _different_ examples I am seeing.
Keep in mind that there are SMTP envelope MAIL FROM and RCPT TO addresses that often get stripped even from the "full" headers of a message. If they do appear, they will appear as "Return-Path" and "Envelope-To" respectively. In this case, it appears that the original message was sent with envelope headers indicating a mail from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, but the actual "From" and "To" headers were garbage. Nonetheless, the mail server at "helices.org" accepted it for delivery to the "mds" mailbox. When your "fetchmail" (on "bragi", I gather) ran to grab mail from your <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailbox, it ran across this message and attempted it to deliver it via SMTP to the local mail server on "bragi". But "bragi"'s server didn't like the empty "To" header and complained with a 550 error, so "fetchmail" tried to bounce the error message back to the envelope "from" address, namely <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. It tried to send this bounce by connecting to your localhost's SMTP port (on "bragi") and sending a bounce with an envelope indicating a mail from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Unfortunately, the "exim" on "bragi" wasn't configured to rewrite the envelope "from" address of the FETCHMAIL-DAEMON to something more useful. It passed it on to "trout" which passed it on to the qmail server on "mail.private.network", and qmail attempted to deliver it via SMTP to the mail server on "smtp.wanadoo.fr". That host bitched about the invalid envelope "from" address (because "bragi.private.network" is clearly invalid outside your private network) during the SMTP exchange with "mail.private.network", so "mail.private.network" tried to bounce it back to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To do this, it contacted the SMTP server on "bragi.private.network", but "bragi" didn't have an account or matching alias for "FETCHMAIL-DAEMON", so it refused the message. The "qmail" program on "mail.private.network" was so fed up at having its bounce bounce that it mailed the postmaster in frustration. Got that? You can easily head this off at the pass by passing "fetchmail" the "--nobounce" command line option. With this option, it'll just send bounces to the postmaster on "bragi" instead of trying to deliver them back to the message sender. -- Kevin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
