forward problem

Hi,

Situation sketch:

User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
which creates a loop.

Should this message indeed be delivered to A again and did I do
something wrong in forwarding it? Or should the error-mail not be sent
to A but somewhere else? What would be the nicest way of solving this
problem?

Any help is appreciated.

--
David

Re: forward problem

David de Kloet wrote:

> User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
> D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
> and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
> email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
> D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
> the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
> which creates a loop.
>
> Should this message indeed be delivered to A again and did I do
> something wrong in forwarding it? Or should the error-mail not be sent
> to A but somewhere else? What would be the nicest way of solving this
> problem?

Non-delivery receipts must be marked as such (MAIL FROM: <>), and they must
never be auto-replied to.

Thor

--
http://www.anta.net/OH2GDF

Re: forward problem

On Tue, 17 May 2005, Thor Kottelin wrote:

> David de Kloet wrote:
>
>> User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
>> D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
>> and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
>> email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
>> D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
>> the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
>> which creates a loop.
>>
>> Should this message indeed be delivered to A again and did I do
>> something wrong in forwarding it? Or should the error-mail not be sent
>> to A but somewhere else? What would be the nicest way of solving this
>> problem?
>
> Non-delivery receipts must be marked as such (MAIL FROM: <>), and they must
> never be auto-replied to.

Thanks for replying but I don't understand. Should I have configured
it differently? What? How?

--
David

Re: forward problem

David de Kloet wrote:
>
> On Tue, 17 May 2005, Thor Kottelin wrote:
>
> > David de Kloet wrote:
> >
> >> User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
> >> D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
> >> and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
> >> email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
> >> D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
> >> the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
> >> which creates a loop.

> > Non-delivery receipts must be marked as such (MAIL FROM: <>), and they must
> > never be auto-replied to.
>
> Thanks for replying but I don't understand. Should I have configured
> it differently? What? How?

I don't know what you're using, or how you have configured it.

However, since your non-delivery receipt (NDR) created a loop, one or both
of the requirements I mentioned above must have been violated. A glance at
the mail server log should reveal whether the NDR carried an empty return
path, as it should have.

Thor

--
http://www.anta.net/OH2GDF

Re: forward problem

On Tue, 17 May 2005 16:54:22 +0200, David de Kloet
wrote:

>User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
>D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
>and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
>email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
>D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
>the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
>which creates a loop.
>
>Should this message indeed be delivered to A again and did I do
>something wrong in forwarding it? Or should the error-mail not be sent
>to A but somewhere else?

The bounce should go to the original sender, not A. When forwarding,
say Mail From:, not Mail From:.
I'd guess that mail with an empty Return Path (Mail From:<>) probably
shouldn't be forwarded, but I'm not sure about that.

Steve Baker

On Tue, 17 May 2005, Steve Baker wrote:

> On Tue, 17 May 2005 16:54:22 +0200, David de Kloet
> wrote:
>
>> User A is not a real human and its account is managed by users B, C and
>> D. Therefore email to A is forwarded to B, C and D. User D goes awy
>> and his account gets removed from the system. Now someone sends an
>> email to A which the mailsystem tries to forward to B, C and D. Since
>> D doesn't exist anymore the mailer-daemon sends a message telling that
>> the email to D could not be delivered. This message gets sent to A
>> which creates a loop.
>>
>> Should this message indeed be delivered to A again and did I do
>> something wrong in forwarding it? Or should the error-mail not be sent
>> to A but somewhere else?
>
> The bounce should go to the original sender, not A. When forwarding,
> say Mail From:, not Mail From:.

Ok, but why does the original sender have to know that A tried to
redirect his message to a non-existing address? That's non of his
business is it?

--
David