Stroller <strol...@stellar.eclipse.co.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="port...@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
