From: zsd@jdvb.ca   
      
   On 2025-12-22 at 18:12 AST, noel  wrote:   
   > On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:34:40 -0400, Jim Diamond wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >>> mailq  -  what does it say?   
   >>   
   >> It tells me there are mail message(s) waiting to be sent.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> And unfortunately, sendmail -q (I use -v as well) while the network is   
   >> up has no effect, the mail is not sent, and mailq continues to report   
   >> that there is mail waiting to be sent.   
   >   
   >   
   > OK first, what is the reason?   tail -n20 maillog   (if you run it   
   > through amavis or mailscanner use -n60)   
      
   I had to go back in time more than 20 lines.  :-)   
   See below.   
      
   > (you can sanitise your server name, and any email addresses - so long as   
   > you are sure there is no typo in the emails - I suggest replace left hand   
   > side with xxxxxxxxxxxxx and leave the host/domain part intact)   
      
   Here is the message in maillog when it tried to send an email while the   
   network was down:   
      
   ------------------   
   Dec 16 15:05:58 x360 postfix/pickup[1480]: AA6B21E0B4C: uid=1000 from=   
   Dec 16 15:05:58 x360 postfix/cleanup[2477]: AA6B21E0B4C: message   
   id=   
   Dec 16 15:05:58 x360 postfix/qmgr[3285]: AA6B21E0B4C: from=,   
   size=2073, nrcpt=1 (queue active)   
   Dec 16 15:05:58 x360 postfix/smtp[2479]: AA6B21E0B4C: to=,   
   relay=none, delay=0.05, delays=0.03/0.01/0/0, dsn=4.4.3, status=deferred (Host   
   or domain name not found. Name service error for name=MY_SMTP_SERVER type=A:   
   Host not found, try    
   again)   
   ------------------   
      
   Once the network was back, I tried running the queue:   
      
   ------------------   
   Dec 16 15:06:17 x360 postfix/postqueue[2613]: name_mask: ipv4   
   Dec 16 15:06:17 x360 postfix/postqueue[2613]: inet_addr_local: configured 2   
   IPv4 addresses   
   Dec 16 15:06:17 x360 postfix/qmgr[3285]: AA6B21E0B4C: from=,   
   size=2073, nrcpt=1 (queue active)   
   Dec 16 15:06:17 x360 postfix/smtp[2479]: AA6B21E0B4C: to=,   
   relay=none, delay=19, delays=19/0/0/0, dsn=4.4.3, status=deferred (Host or   
   domain name not found. Name service error for name=MY_SMTP_SERVER type=A: Host   
   not found, try again)   
   ------------------   
      
   However, I am able to do this until the cows come home, and even though new   
   emails will get out, the one in queue seems to get the status=deferred   
   response ad infinitum.  (OK, I didn't let it go until infinity, so that   
   last part is bold hyperbole.  But I previous cases I tried many times, to   
   no avail.)   
      
   Eventually I give up and resend the message from my MUA and manually remove   
   the two email files from /var/spool.   
      
      
   > This might allow identifying the reason, else the next command will haver   
   > to be run again and again and again, when you should never have to.   
   >   
   > THEN   
   >   
   > postqueue -f   
      
   I type   
     sendmail -v -q   
   out of habit, but the sendmail (postfix version) man page leads me to   
   believe that "sendmail -q" == "postqueue -f".   
      
   I don't know if the above bits from maillog tell you anything, aside from   
   seeing that it was continuing to insist that it couldn't look up my SMTP   
   server.  If you have some extra insight there, I'm all ears.   
      
   Cheers.   
                                   Jim   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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