Re: [9fans] smtp dns failure: mx lookup

[Robert Raschke <rrplan9@tombob.com>]

greg scott wrote:
> trying to send mail (Post tag in acme mail) results in
> this /sys/log/smtp.fail entry
> dns: dns failure (net!smtp.comcast.net)

I don't have a solution, just a workaround.  I don't even understand
why it is happening.

I had the same problem whenever I had to fall back on using my ISP's
smtp server.  I got "around" this problem by adding a bit of guff in
front of the upas/smtp ...  line in /mail/lib/remotemail that does the
posting.  If you are always using smtp.comcast.net, then add this:

echo smtp.comcast.net |ndb/dnsquery >/dev/null

I also changed my remotemail to attempt direct delivery before falling
back to the ISP smtp server:

#!/bin/rc
shift
sender=$1
shift
addr=$1
shift
fd=`{/bin/upas/aliasmail -f $sender}
switch($fd){
case *.*
	;
case *
	fd=tombob.com
}
today=`{date}
if (upas/smtp -h $fd $addr $sender $*) {
	exit 0
}
echo $today : upas/smtp -h $fd tcp!smtp.blueyonder.co.uk $sender $* >>/sys/log/remotemail
echo smtp.blueyonder.co.uk |ndb/dnsquery >>/sys/log/remotemail
exec upas/smtp -h $fd tcp!smtp.blueyonder.co.uk $sender $*


Robby