Re: [gentoo-user] Postfix broken

[Allan Gottlieb]

Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk> writes:

> On 14/11/2010, at 5:57am, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
>
>> Some time ago, it appears, postfix stopped working for me.  I am no longer able
>> to use it to send mail (usually to my ISP, where it gets routed).
>> ...
>> I don't even know where to start on this.  Can anyone give me a shove in the
>> right direction.  I'm pretty good at this, but I only configured Postfix once and it
>> was a long time ago.
>
> Start configuring Postfix again from scratch, following the guide (E.G. <http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Postfix>). For a basic install of Postfix - i.e. outgoing proxy, on your LAN, behind a router - then there's very little you need to configure. About 3 or 4 lines in main.cf.
>
> You should be doing stuff like telnetting to port 25 <http://www.yuki-onna.co.uk/email/smtp.html> and `sendmail kevin < file.txt` (assuming kevin is a valid local user and you know how to read the mailbox). If there's no reply on port 25 then you know postfix isn't starting.
>
> Seriously, the first place to look is ALWAYS the logs.
>
> Once you've got mail working, consider something like:
> $ grep ELOG /etc/make.conf
> PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="warn error log"
> PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="save mail"
> PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILURI="root"
> PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILFROM="portage@yourhostname"
> $
>
> Note that postmaster & root should be configured in /etc/mail/aliases
> - typically postmaster -> root, root -> you. About the hardest part of
> setting up a Postfix install is running the newaliases command.

The only "hard" part for me was that I needed to set up sasl since the
site I relay through (smtp.cs.nyu.edu) requires authentication.
If you don't need this authentication with password, then there is
really nothing hard.

A few revisions ago postfix changed this but supplied a legacy version
that I use.  Lately, the updates have been painless (although stressful,
due to the importance of mail).

As mentioned the logs are helpful and the verbosity can be configured.
From my current main.cf

    # DEBUGGING CONTROL
    #
    # The debug_peer_level parameter specifies the increment in verbose
    # logging level when an SMTP client or server host name or address
    # matches a pattern in the debug_peer_list parameter.
    #
    debug_peer_level = 2

    # The debug_peer_list parameter specifies an optional list of domain
    # or network patterns, /file/name patterns or type:name tables. When
    # an SMTP client or server host name or address matches a pattern,
    # increase the verbose logging level by the amount specified in the
    # debug_peer_level parameter.
    #
    #debug_peer_list = 127.0.0.1
    #debug_peer_list = some.domain
    #ajg: uncomment next line when debugging authentication
    #debug_peer_list = smtp.cs.nyu.edu

Good luck,
allan