[Mailman-Users] went live - big mistake - please help

[Barry Finkel]

drb wrote:

>Hello Mark,
>Could you please let me know how to access smtp-log?
>So the mailman will bounce if it can't send email to a valid email ID?
>how many attempts will it take before it quits?  I saw the email in the
>archives, but I cannot see who got it. Is there a feature where mailman
>can show which users got an email?  please help.

On my Ubuntu 2.1.9 system Mailman puts its logs in

    /var/log/mailman

With respect to "can't send email to a valid email ID", it depends
upon the nature of the error.  If the e-mail address is valid, and
everything is correct, then the mail will be sent the first time, and
there will be no bounces.  If the e-mail address is incorrect, the
receiving mail system will bounce the mail, and Mailman will not
retry.  If the SMTP (RFC 2821) dialog with the remote mailer
results in a 400-level return code, then the mail will be retried.
If the SMTP dialog results in a 500-level return code, then a retry
will not occur.

I believe that Mailman relies on a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA),
for example, Postfix, to do its mail delivery,  It is the MTA that
handles the retry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994