From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/60427 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Steven E. Harris" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Gnus with Exim Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:14:22 -0700 Organization: SEH Labs Message-ID: References: <83k6lagmx8.fsf@torus.sehlabs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1118254720 30645 80.91.229.2 (8 Jun 2005 18:18:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 18:18:40 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M8954@lists.math.uh.edu Wed Jun 08 20:18:37 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Dg55Z-00049K-3a for ding-account@gmane.org; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:15:41 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1Dg54i-00030f-00; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:14:48 -0500 Original-Received: from util2.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.23]) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1Dg54d-00030a-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:14:43 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by util2.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1Dg54a-0003C7-2K for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:14:40 -0500 Original-Received: from [204.193.55.129] (helo=W003275.na.alarismed.com) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1Dg54U-0006fk-00 for ; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:14:34 +0200 Original-Received: from sharris by W003275.na.alarismed.com with local (Exim 4.50) id IHS2NY-0001MK-9W; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:14:22 -0700 Original-To: David Abrahams Mail-Followup-To: David Abrahams , ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: (David Abrahams's message of "Mon, 06 Jun 2005 21:36:12 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) XEmacs/21.4.13 (cygwin32) X-Spam-Score: -4.9 (----) Precedence: bulk Original-Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:60427 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:60427 David Abrahams writes: > Okay, I'm going to ask you "what should I do next to configure Exim > so that I can send mail from anywhere?" After thinking it over for a few days, I think I'd take advantage of some of exim's new configuration file "preprocessor-like" features and use a swappable smart host setup, skipping the dnslookup stuff. You could define a router like the "smart_route" one defined in the first exim.conf I shared, but rather than specifying smtp.rcn.com directly, use file inclusion to pull in a one- or two-line snippet from a separate file that defines your current SMTP server. It's only a slightly less ugly version of the multiple exim.conf file scheme I mentioned a few days ago, but I think it best captures your requirements. Rather than using this directly, ,---- | smart_route: | driver = manualroute | domains = ! +local_domains | transport = remote_smtp | route_list = * smtp.rcn.com `---- you could use this¹: ,---- | smart_route: | driver = manualroute | domains = ! +local_domains | transport = remote_smtp | .include /etc/exim_smarthost_route_list `---- The file /etc/exim_smarthost_route_list could be a symlink that pointed to one of two files: ,----[ /etc/exim_rcn_route_list ] | route_list = * smtp.rcn.com `---- ,----[ /etc/exim_bc_route_list ] | route_list = * smtp.boost-consulting.com `---- You'd have to flip that symlink each time you changed your computer's physical location. Alternately, why not try this first and see if it suits your needs. Specify multiple servers in your smart host route list, and let them be tried in order: ,---- | smart_route: | driver = manualroute | domains = ! +local_domains | transport = remote_smtp | route_list = * smtp.rcn.com:smtp.boost-consulting.com `---- The only trouble there arises if one of those servers operates on a non-standard port, or rather if they operate on different ports. The SMTP port is specified as part of the remote_smtp transport.² That means that if the two smart hosts operate on different ports, they need different remote_smtp transport specifications: ,---- | smart_route: | driver = manualroute | domains = ! +local_domains | transport = remote_smtp | route_list = * smtp.rcn.com | host_find_failed = pass | | smart_route_fallback: | driver = manualroute | domains = ! +local_domains | transport = remote_smtp_special | route_list = * smtp.boost-consulting.com `---- ,----[ Transport to handle non-standard SMTP port ] | remote_smtp_special: | driver = smtp | port = 2525 `---- I have not tested this configuration -- host_find_failed in particular -- but it matches my reading of the manualroute router documentation.³ [...] > I'd be satisfied with a configuration that tried smtp.rcn.com and > then fell back to smtp.boost-consulting.com. That scheme seems to > work in 99% of all locations. Please consider the proposals above and let me know what you think. Footnotes: ¹ http://www.exim.org/exim-html-4.50/doc/html/spec_6.html#SECT6.3 ² http://www.exim.org/exim-html-4.50/doc/html/spec_30.html#IX2248 ³ http://www.exim.org/exim-html-4.50/doc/html/spec_20.html#IX1733 -- Steven E. Harris