Wietse Venema wrote:
I don't think that it is a good idea to fill up your machine with
programs that keep timing out again and again and again. Postfix
is not only about performance and security, but also about safety
(mail servers should be able to deal with problems and not require
a human babysitter).
Understood, but if this condition is occurring, there must be delay or
failure in another component of the system.
Obviously, there is a failure of some kind, and absent a human
operator to click on OK/ABORT/RETRY, the mail system has to choose
a safe action.
Unsafe actions lead to system congestion and human operators
having to unclog the toilet.
But it transfers the burden back onto the sender to recreate the message
and hope it arrives. Their tension will grow each time it bounces back
to them.
The admin can monitor queue sizes and state to determine what's going
on. They can also monitor the rest of the system to know why mail is
piling up.
If you prefer a mail system that needs a babysitter, don't use
Postfix. I can't make recommendations about other mail systems.
Not asking for Postfix to babysit the problem, but to keep the already
queued message if an internal pipe problem is detected.
And no, I can't think of any other mail systems either. I accept the
conditions of Postfix, just wanted to explain the problem we face.
Thank you again for your time.
