Mailing from a script - 2 (fwd)
Gerald Combs
gerald at ethereal.com
Thu Jun 21 03:52:12 CDT 2001
On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Edgar Allen wrote:
> Forwarded message:
> >
> >Um... Why not simply add an "include" line to /etc/aliases? As I recall,
> >the syntax is
> >
> >list-address: :include:/some/path/to/users.txt
> >
> >This lets you manage addresses in users.txt while being able to send a
> >single message to list-address. It's more efficient in that sendmail only
> >gets called once.
> >
>
> Rereading this I get the feeling that it might be interpreted as
> a flame. Not my intent but I don't have time to clean it up at the
> moment.
>
> So please accept my assurance that my words are not meant to be harsh.
>
> I will try to be less ambiguous in the future.
>
> Because all the deliveries are done sequentially, only recipients at the
> same domain are delivered as a batch, delivery of mail to some users can
> be delayed because of their position behind a failing address.
>
> Delaying email for a couple of days because some nimrod cannot keep his
> Exchange server running does not seem reasonable to me and apparently
> not to the author of 'fastmail' either.
>
> I often use alias lists myself but almost always where all but one or
> two names are at the same destination and then that "foreign" address
> goes first in the list so that it gets delivered last. Sendmail builds
> a stack for deliveries so it is "First In, Last Out".
>
> By making each message a separate delivery then everybody gets it as soon
> as their system will accept it without clogging up the mail queue because
> of full mailboxes or bad addresses, which become a major pain if the list
> gets big.
>
> I read his request as wanting to get timely delivery with the minimum of
> hassles/delays. I guess we have differences of opinion about how valuable
> computer cycles versus human delays are.
I wasn't aware that Sendmail used a FILO queue for its recipient list.
Thanks for the explanation.
As far as human delays go, we have no difference of opinion. A couple of
the mailing lists that I manage used to have significant delivery delays
for some users, apparently caused by the behavior you describe above. I
fixed the problem by dumping Sendmail in favor of Postfix. Its queue
manager is quite efficient (see http://www.postfix.org/qmgr.8.html for
details).
BTW, I hadn't heard of fastmail before. Is it similar to bulk_mailer
(ftp://cs.utk.edu/pub/moore/bulk_mailer/)?
>
>
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