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The sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL

Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 11:36 pm
by Flurrywinde
I have a script that runs every night and sends people e-mail if there are new posts in the forum. Here's a partial transcript of the log:

Code: Select all

. . .
> Bleach: Royal Guard - Las Noches - 6 new messages sent to (02:39:38):
>
> hollowking - somebody@hotmail.com
> foxhanyou - somebody@Aol.com
> jasperfan - somebody@hotmail.com
>
> Bleach: Royal Guard - Soul Society 3 - 1 new messages sent to
 (02:46:56):
>
> hollowking - somebody@hotmail.com
> foxhanyou - somebody@Aol.com
> jasperfan - somebody@hotmail.com
> An error occurredThe sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL
 
> FROM: <somebody@playbyweb.com>' to be sent.<h3>Log 
> Information</h3><pre><< 220-zibal.lunarservers.com ESMTP Exim
 4.68 
> #1 Sat, 10 May 2008 02:39:37 -0700
> 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport
 unsolicited,
> 220 and/or bulk e-mail.
> >> EHLO localhost.localdomain
> << 250-zibal.lunarservers.com Hello playb4 at
 localhost.localdomain
> 250-SIZE 52428800
> 250-PIPELINING
> 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
> 250-STARTTLS
> 250 HELP
> ++ Message sent to 1/1 recipients
> >> MAIL FROM: <somebody@playbyweb.com>
> << 250 OK
> >> RCPT TO: <somebody@hotmail.com>
> << 250 Accepted
> >> DATA
> << 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by
 itself
> >> <MESSAGE DATA>
> >>
> .
> << 250 OK id=1JulYM-0006p0-Ag
> >> QUIT
> << 221 zibal.lunarservers.com closing connection
> << 220-zibal.lunarservers.com ESMTP Exim 4.68 #1 Sat, 10 May
 2008 
> 02:39:52 -0700
> 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport
 unsolicited,
> 220 and/or bulk e-mail.
> >> EHLO localhost.localdomain
> << 250-zibal.lunarservers.com Hello playb4 at
 localhost.localdomain
> 250-SIZE 52428800
> 250-PIPELINING
> 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
> 250-STARTTLS
> 250 HELP
> ++ Message sent to 1/1 recipients
> >> MAIL FROM: <somebody@playbyweb.com>
> << 250 OK
> >> RCPT TO: <somebody@aol.com>
> << 250 Accepted
> >> DATA
> << 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by
 itself
> >> <MESSAGE DATA>
> >>
> .
> << 250 OK id=1JulYW-0006sH-HJ
> >> QUIT
> << 221 zibal.lunarservers.com closing connection
> << 220-zibal.lunarservers.com ESMTP Exim 4.68 #1 Sat, 10 May
 2008 
> 02:40:02 -0700
> 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport
 unsolicited,
> 220 and/or bulk e-mail.
> >> EHLO localhost.localdomain
> << 250-zibal.lunarservers.com Hello playb4 at
 localhost.localdomain
> 250-SIZE 52428800
> 250-PIPELINING
> 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
> 250-STARTTLS
> 250 HELP
> ++ Message sent to 1/1 recipients
> >> MAIL FROM: <somebody@playbyweb.com>
> << 250 OK
> >> RCPT TO: <somebody@hotmail.com>
> << 250 Accepted
> >> DATA
> << 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by
 itself
> >> <MESSAGE DATA>
> >>
> .
> << 250 OK id=1JulYj-0006uh-0g
> >> QUIT
> << 221 zibal.lunarservers.com closing connection
> << 220-zibal.lunarservers.com ESMTP Exim 4.68 #1 Sat, 10 May
 2008 
> 02:40:19 -0700
> 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport
 unsolicited,
> 220 and/or bulk e-mail.
> >> EHLO localhost.localdomain
> << 250-zibal.lunarservers.com Hello playb4 at
 localhost.localdomain
> 250-SIZE 52428800
> 250-PIPELINING
> 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
> 250-STARTTLS
> 250 HELP
> ++ Message sent to 1/1 recipients
> >> MAIL FROM: <somebody@playbyweb.com></pre>
> Buffyverse - Sleeping Slayer - 1 new messages sent to (02:47:43):
>
> tyrdrannoy - somebody@yahoo.com (Send by Gmail SMTP)
> E-mails sent by Gmail SMTP: 14 (This time: 1, Max allowed: 50)
 
. . .
 
What does this exception mean? $log->getFailedRecipients() was empty. Does this mean the e-mail really went through? Well, I'm hoping when I start using Swift_Connection_Multi it will automatically rotate. However, it seems like sendmail started working again after this error, and if so, I would not want it to rotate. What's going on?

Re: The sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 12:29 am
by Chris Corbyn
Usually this error occurs when the process doesn't respond because it's too busy, or because too much mail was sent through it in a short period of time.
Flurrywinde wrote:Well, I'm hoping when I start using Swift_Connection_Multi it will automatically rotate.
Not in version 3 it doesn't, but version 4 does handle failover halfway through sending. It's only going to be a week or so before the beta of version 4 is out. I'm just going to run a public beta by the look of things since not many people have contacted regarding the private beta.

Re: The sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:45 pm
by Flurrywinde
Why were there no failed recipients? Does that mean despite the error the e-mail was really sent?

Re: The sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:47 pm
by Flurrywinde
Why were there no failed recipients? Does that mean despite the error the e-mail was really sent?

I should be able to install the beta on one of my sites. It's low volume e-mail, however. For my higher volume site, I think I better stick to stable.

Re: The sendmail process did not allow the command 'MAIL

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:07 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Failed recipients from Swift's point of view are recipient's it asked the server to send to but the server said "no". In this case it never got a "no" response from the server so all emails up until this (fatal) error were sent. I don't know how which recipients were not sent to however. Use batchSend() to add some error tolerance to the sending process if you're not going to try/catch the errors yourself ;)