Stefan Palme wrote:
On Fri, 2008-09-05 at 06:52 -0400, Wietse Venema wrote:
Stefan Palme:
Hi all,
Our mail server is configured to use special envelope sender addresses
for some outgoing mail so that bounces can be processed automatically.
The "bounce processor" is a self-made script. Are there any hints what
to look for in a bounced mail to be sure, that it really is a bounce
caused by "undeliverable mail" (and not only a vacation message), and
how to clearly detect the email address that bounced? My goal is to
collect invalid email addresses, but not email addresses that only send
a vacation message or other auto-reply-stuff.
Use an envelope sender address that does not appear in From: or reply-To:.
I do. But not only "real bounces" are sent back to the envelope sender
address, but vacation-auto-replies too. See thread with subject
"where to send auto-replies?".
- make sure to set the Auto-Submitted and Precedence headers. this will
reduce the number of auto-responses.
- try to parse your postfix logs for invalid addresses.
This way, you can ignore bounces
with these, you are left with
- systems that bounce later
- systems that auto-respond when they should not.
if your mailing is not too frequent, you can simply look for addresses
that bounce systematically. few people would go on vacation for 3
months! you can also send a "failure notification" so that if it's a
vacation problem, the user can resubscribe after his return. but don't
abuse these!
note that you don't need to unsubscribe an address because of a single
bounce. even a "user unknown..." may be a transient misconfiguration error.
anyway, mass mail is not easy...
