I have just installed Mandraka 2008.1 and they have set up postfix so that
errors like the enclosed are reported to email to postmaster. This totally
swamps the mail box. How do I shut it off? This is an insane use of mail
reporting! (I could of course set up procmail to discard all such mail, but
that would clearly be kludge and I should be able to switch the mail
reporting off in postfix.
-------------------------------------------------------------

From: MAILER-DAEMON@physics.ubc.ca (Mail Delivery System)
To: postmaster@physics.ubc.ca (Postmaster)
Subject: Postfix SMTP server: errors from
UNTRUST.OIZURU-FW.OIZURU.CO.TH[116.68.154.226]
Message-Id: <20080709154837.972C7E8239@info.physics.ubc.ca>
Transcript of session follows.

Out: 220 info.physics.ubc.ca ESMTP Postfix (2.5.1) (Mandrake Linux)
In: EHLO UNTRUST.OIZURU-FW.OIZURU.CO.TH
Out: 250-info.physics.ubc.ca
Out: 250-PIPELINING
Out: 250-SIZE 10240000
Out: 250-VRFY
Out: 250-ETRN
Out: 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
Out: 250-8BITMIME
Out: 250 DSN
In: MAIL From:<Xcgblancm@annarborcenter.com>
Out: 250 2.1.0 Ok
In: RCPT To:<thornbu@black-hole.physics.ubc.ca>
Out: 451 4.3.5 Server configuration error
In: DATA
Out: 554 5.5.1 Error: no valid recipients

Session aborted, reason: lost connection

On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:02:44 GMT, Unruh wrote:
> I have just installed Mandraka 2008.1 and they have set up postfix so that
> errors like the enclosed are reported to email to postmaster.

Hmmm, I never saw that problem.
Then again, I modify the aliases file.

$ tail -12 /etc/postfix/aliases | head -5

# Person who should get root's mail. This alias
# must exist.
# CHANGE THIS LINE to an account of a HUMAN
root: bittwister


Then run postalias and service postfix restart

That sends all postmaster emails to me because of the default
postmaster: root
directive in aliases.

On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:02:44 -0400, Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:

> Out: 451 4.3.5 Server configuration error

Looks to me like there's something in /etc/postfix/main.cf, or the directory
structure/ownership, that postfix doesn't like. Is there anything in
/var/log/mail/errors.log?

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

"David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> writes:

>On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:02:44 -0400, Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:

>> Out: 451 4.3.5 Server configuration error

>Looks to me like there's something in /etc/postfix/main.cf, or the directory
>structure/ownership, that postfix doesn't like. Is there anything in
>/var/log/mail/errors.log?

No that error report IS a report of an invalid recipient. Regular mail to
real recipients actually does get through fine. HOwever since my system
gets bombarded by junk messages to ancient or invalid recipients (a user
similar to the recipient reported in that message was here 15 years ago,
but the memory in spam lists is infinite) this means I get such invalid
address recipient mail maybe 1000 times a day. And getting 1000 emails from
SNTP like that is simply unacceptable.


>Regards, Dave Hodgins

>--
>Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
>(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
>use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> writes:

> "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> writes:
>
>>On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:02:44 -0400, Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
>>> Out: 451 4.3.5 Server configuration error
>
>>Looks to me like there's something in /etc/postfix/main.cf, or the directory
>>structure/ownership, that postfix doesn't like. Is there anything in
>>/var/log/mail/errors.log?
>
> No that error report IS a report of an invalid recipient. Regular mail to
> real recipients actually does get through fine. HOwever since my system
> gets bombarded by junk messages to ancient or invalid recipients (a user
> similar to the recipient reported in that message was here 15 years ago,
> but the memory in spam lists is infinite) this means I get such invalid
> address recipient mail maybe 1000 times a day. And getting 1000 emails from
> SNTP like that is simply unacceptable.

But an invalid recipient should not cause your system to return Server
Configuration Error. If your system is returning SCE to the incoming
client, your configuration is broken.

First fix your configuration.

Then, if you still need to switch off error reporting, look at the section
on error reporting in
http://www.postfix.org/BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README.html