# Sendmail not sending mail --desperate here!

## grooveman

Hello.

I have installed sendmail on my gentoo system.  I have been struggling with this non-stop for three days now.

The problem is this:  When I send mail either from the localhost or from an allowed relay client the message just disappears!  I look at my mail.log on the server, and everything look fine!  The message is accepted for delivery and it says it is sent -- but I never receive anything!  /var/spool/mail is *always* emtpy.  /var/spool/mail/mqueue is likewise, empty.  

It doesn't matter if the message is relayed or local -- it always says it is accepted, and it always says it was sent "ok" -- and nothing ever materializes.

I am totally baffled here -- I have never seen this before and I have been using sendmail for years now.

Also -- things are running *very slow* mail wise -- got about a 30 second lag on pop connections (qpopper -- even with using the -R switch) and about 15 seconds for smtp (both tested with telnet).  I don't know if it is related or not, but I can't figure that out either.

Can someone give me a hand here?

Thanks!

G

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## zeek

 *grooveman wrote:*   

> When I send mail either from the localhost or from an allowed relay client the message just disappears!  ...  /var/spool/mail is *always* emtpy.  /var/spool/mail/mqueue is likewise, empty.

 

You are probably using maildir, not mbox.  Did you build sendmail with +mbox in USE?

Check the username that you sent it to in their ~/.maildir/new directory.  Good chance the messages are there.

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## grooveman

sh*t...

That was it.

I put "mbox" in my USE flags.  I thought that was lt would need -- but you are saying I need to have USE="+mbox"?

I can give that a try later.

Thanks!

Still slow as a bugger though... any idea why?

It took 4 hours to send an email to another account. and POP is still very slow...

Thanks again!

Chris

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## grooveman

Okay, I tried USE="+mbox" and when I emerge sendmail again, I get a bunch of:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> USE flags should not start with a '+': +mbox
> 
> USE flags should not start with a '+': +mbox
> ...

 

So... something is screwey here... it doesn't like USE="mbox" and doesn't seem to like "+mbox".

I'm going to try "-maildir" and see what happens...

G

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## grooveman

Okay... still using maildir.

I have "mbox -maildir" in my use flags.

My entire use string:   USE="X gtk xml vim pwdb drac sendmail pdflib firefox mbox -maildir xdebug gd gdlib libpng jpeg modperl php mod_php apache nfs postgres mysql apache fbcon cups crypt ethreal flash gpm mmx ncurses pam perl png gif samba spell java ssl tcpd tetex tiff truetype x86 -alsa ssl"

I have tied sendmail 8.12.10 and 8.12.11.

More weirdness.  When I do an emerge -pv sendmail I get this:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> [ebuild     UD] net-mail/sendmail-8.12.10 [8.12.11] +berkdb +gdbm -ldap +mbox -sasl +ssl +tcpd
> 
> 

 

Which seems to imply that it *is* using mbox... but that is not how it is behaving!

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

G

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## zeek

 *grooveman wrote:*   

> Okay... still using maildir.
> 
> I have "mbox -maildir" in my use flags.
> 
> 

 

maildir / mbox is controlled by the delivery (procmail) settings in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc

The ebuild just copies over a different sendmail.mc depending on that USE flag.  Look in /usr/portage/net-mail/sendmail/files for the different config files it uses.

I believe that /usr/portage/net-mail/sendmail/files/sendmail.mc is used for mbox systems, but I may be wrong -- check the ebuild file!

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## grooveman

Got it.

As zeek implied, it is not a problem with sendmail.  There seems to be a problem with the procmail ebuild ignoring the mbox and -maildir flags.

You can go here, dear reader, for the details:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36766

When I get a minute to myself, I might make a hotwo on this subject since it has been so trying...

G

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