Problem with MaxMessageSize

Hi,

In my sendmail.cf file, I have the maximum message size defined as so:


# maximum message size
O MaxMessageSize=5242880

Most of my customers pop their mail using dialup, so very large emails cause
problems. The MaxMessageSize seems to be ignored however, today I deleted
these emails out of a customers mail file:

3 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

4 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

5 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

6 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

7 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

8 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

N 9 Oct 19 L.L.Bean Orders (27K) Your L.L.Bean Order (might contain gift
information)

N 10 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

N 11 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

N 12 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!

Why is MaxMessageSize being ignored?

Thanks,

Lisa Casey

Re: Problem with MaxMessageSize

In article <13hk8c4lu4ql531@corp.supernews.com>,
"Lisa Casey" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> In my sendmail.cf file, I have the maximum message size defined as so:
>
>
> # maximum message size
> O MaxMessageSize=5242880
>
> Most of my customers pop their mail using dialup, so very large emails cause
> problems. The MaxMessageSize seems to be ignored however, today I deleted
> these emails out of a customers mail file:
>
> 3 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> 4 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> 5 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> 6 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> 7 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> 8 Oct 18 Rich Unger (12.3M) so true......hope you enjoy this Mom thing!
>
> N 9 Oct 19 L.L.Bean Orders (27K) Your L.L.Bean Order (might contain gift
> information)

One of these things is not like the others...

[...]

> Why is MaxMessageSize being ignored?

That listing looks like something you might see in a program for reading
mail. Have you looked at the relevant sendmail log entries for those
messages to see what Sendmail had to say about them? Those lines will
include the size of the message as seen by Sendmail. You don't mention
what exactly it is that is showing you those 'big' messages or whether
they really and truly are that big on disk, and there are a number of
ways for messages to end up in mailboxes looking larger than Sendmail's
limit:

1. Some delivery and mailstore systems unpack compressed attachments and
show the user the size of the unpacked files.
2. Some messages have the non-standard Content-Length header, which some
very naive mail clients will read and trust as containing the size of
the message.
3. Some environments have means of passing mail between local users
without the involvement of Sendmail. Since you don't say anything about
your environment other than mentioning Sendmail, this is a possibility
4. Some mailstore (e.g. POP/IMAP) servers have failure modes that show
clients insanely wrong sizes for messages. If your listing is based on a
client talking to such a server rather than looking directly at a mbox
file or a Maildir, this is a possibility as well.

I can go on, but maybe the above will give you some useful ideas of
where to look (or send you on wild goose chases) or maybe you could say
just a bit more about the system you are trying to fix and get more
useful advice.

--
Now where did I hide that website...

Re: Problem with MaxMessageSize

Hi again,

OK, well I feel like a dummy. It was the wrong .cf file. I got it fixed now.

Thanks,

Lisa Casey