Mail GW failing for hotmail users but working from others!

Hi Guys !

I am running Request Tracker 1.0.2 on a Linux 2.2.14-5.0 with Perl 5.0
patchlevel 5 subversion 3 .

our mail server is running on a separate machine ( Isocor Nplex 4.0 on
NT4)
I configured Fetchmail to collect the mail from the accounts
rt-queunames*
I configured sendmail with m4 and killed it -HUP to send all mail to the
hub

now, here is the problem

  • if I create a request, cc someone inside our domain it works without
    any problem
    with different mailers . the CC’ed person can reply to the problem from
    his mailed, and
    his answer is appened to the queue.

  • if I CC someone outside the domain , ( first it didn’t work at all
    until I configured sendmail), it works
    to a certain extend:
    I tried to cc different persons.
    someone @attglobal.net and myself fab_lab@hotmail.com

  • the @attglobal.net person replied with

Return-Path onganb@attglobal.net
Message-ID 391FB8C4.E7C034E4@attglobal.net
Date Mon, 15 May 2000 11:43:48 +0300
From Burak Ongan onganb@attglobal.net
Reply-To onganb@attglobal.net
X-Mailer Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language tr
MIME-Version 1.0
To Fabrice Laborie via RT
rt-testq1@sbm.net.sa
Subject Re: [sbm #80] (testq1) test mail gw
outside sbm.net.sa
References
200005150652.JAA14447@titan.sbm.net.sa
Content-Type text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding 7bit

testing RT

and this was appened to the RT # 80 !

  • when I replied, a new Request was created !!!

here is what I have in RT for request 81 :
Serial Number 81
Subject Re: [sbm #80] (testq1) test mail gw outside sbm.net.sa
Area none
Queue testq1
Requestors fab_lab@hotmail.com


Transaction History Mon, May 15 2000 13:13:44

                   Request created by fab_lab@hotmail.com 
                                                                                                         



   Return-Path	<fab_lab@hotmail.com> 
   Message-ID	<20000515100942.33719.qmail@hotmail.com> 
X-Originating-IP	[212.26.19.153] 
        From        "Fab Lab" <fab_lab@hotmail.com> 
          To	rt-testq1@sbm.net.sa 
       Subject	Re: [sbm #80] (testq1) test mail gw outside

sbm.net.sa
Date Mon, 15 May 2000 10:09:42 GMT
Mime-Version 1.0
Content-Type text/plain; format=flowed

this is a last test ! in for RT #80

From: Fabrice Laborie via RT rt-testq1@sbm.net.sa
Reply-To: Fabrice Laborie via RT rt-testq1@sbm.net.sa
CC: fab_lab@hotmail.com
Subject: [sbm #80] (testq1) test mail gw outside sbm.net.sa
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 13:04:24 +0300
Received: from [212.46.32.43] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id
MHotMailBAE915B800AAD82197CDD42E202B0A050; Mon May 15 03:00:30 2000
Received: from titan.sbm.net.sa (212.46.32.47) by saturn.sbm.net.sa
(NPlex
4.0.068) id 39142D430000AD8E for fab_lab@hotmail.com; Mon, 15
May
2000 12:49:32 +0300
Received: (from root@localhost)by titan.sbm.net.sa (8.9.3/8.9.3) id
NAA14608;Mon, 15 May 2000 13:04:24 +0300
From root@saturn.sbm.net.sa Mon May 15 03:05:19 2000
Message-Id: 200005151004.NAA14608@titan.sbm.net.sa
X-Request-ID: 80
X-RT-Loop-Prevention: sbm
X-Sender: isp-srvr2
X-Managed-By: Request Tracker 1.0.2
(http://www.fsck.com/projects/rt)
Precedence: bulk

Request number 80 was commented on by ‘isp-srvr2’ (Fabrice Laborie).

Can someone explain to me what is happening ?

I notice that in the mail I recived in HotMail, the Header contains the
X-Request-ID: 80,

but neither in attglobal nor in Hotmail, this X-Request is returned
back.
however in attglobal the header
References 200005150652.JAA14447@titan.sbm.net.sa
is returned …

I thought that the only thing looked-up by the mailgw was the subject ?

I have to be honest and admit that I did not fully understand the
different
entries I should put in the the .fetchmailrc …
I used only the usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate testq1 correspond
because I am not sure what the others “actions” means …
( where can I find more info than on the README ? )
is this related ? I don’t think so because the functionnality works
locally, and for some mails

any idea someone ?

thanks a million !

Fabrice Laborie

I’ve never actually been too clear on the differences between action, and
correspond queues…
When I first set up, I created two aliases for each queue - e.g.
techies: |“/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate testq1 correspond
techies-action: |”/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate testq1 action

Your fethcmail rc should look something like:

poll mail.sbm.com
protocol APOP
username testq1 pass XfghyT7VChuP9BBHJH9
mda “/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate techies correspond”

I recall having problems until I specifically quoted the mda. Assuming this is
all working then I suspect that you’re not receiving the full headers. As far
as I know, RT relies on the subject line alone to figure out the serial number
of a reply (see rt/lib/rt/mail parse_header function). I had being thinking
about doing a loose match hack

The references header is part of RFC 822 and is intended to indicate that one
e-mail is referring to another - i.e. a reply of sorts, Used for threading
messages on thingsa like Usenet. I didn’t think RT used it, I haven’t really
checked, so maybe it does… Jesse?

If Hotmail are dropping the References header, they are being nasty to Usenet
like users. Or maybe it’s not part of the full RFC, I coulda sworn it was
though.

Check your aliases and mda are correct, and if not, send a reply from hotmail
to another account to make sure the mailgate isn’t losing the header.

Stuff, Blah, I’m boring.

-Feargal.

Feargal Reilly
Systems Administrator,
The CIA.
+353-86-8157621

Hi Fergal !

I’ve never actually been too clear on the differences between action, and
correspond queues…
When I first set up, I created two aliases for each queue - e.g.
techies: |“/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate testq1 correspond
techies-action: |”/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate testq1 action
I still don’t see what the ACTION is for … but I will leave that for
later …

Your fethcmail rc should look something like:

poll mail.sbm.com
protocol APOP
username testq1 pass XfghyT7VChuP9BBHJH9
mda “/usr/local/rt/bin/rt-mailgate techies correspond”
yeah that’s what I have except that I use pop and not apop … I guess
I should switch,
you are right … never nice to have password in clear, even if
fetchmail forces you to chmod
your .fetchmailrc for more privacy :wink:

I recall having problems until I specifically quoted the mda. Assuming this is
all working then I suspect that you’re not receiving the full headers. As far
as I know, RT relies on the subject line alone to figure out the serial number
of a reply (see rt/lib/rt/mail parse_header function). I had being thinking
about doing a loose match hack

The references header is part of RFC 822 and is intended to indicate that one
e-mail is referring to another - i.e. a reply of sorts, Used for threading
messages on thingsa like Usenet. I didn’t think RT used it, I haven’t really
checked, so maybe it does… Jesse?

I looked up in the code … and the only X-RT header which is parsed
is X-RT-Loop-Prevention …
so it looks like “X-Request-ID:” is not expected to be sent back…
nor the “References:” …

and you are right, only the subject is used to extract the serial number
for further processing.
123 elsif (($line =~
/^Subject:(.)[$rt::rtname\s#(\d+)]\s*(.*)/i) and (!$subject)){
124 $serial_num=$2;
125 &rt::req_in($serial_num,$current_user);
126 $subject=$3;
127 $subject =~ s/($rt::req[$serial_num]{‘queue_id’})//i;
128 }

this means that the reply from Hotmail SHOULD work and the mailgw SHOULD
process it normally.
( btw in the mean time I tried from other domains/other mailers …
Lotus Notes 5 worked perfectly :wink:

any idea ???
this is realllllllly strange to me any body has experience this kind of
problem ?

could someone test this from his stable installation of RT ? ( I could
reply to a Request send form some
one from this mailing list…)

Check your aliases and mda are correct, and if not, send a reply from hotmail
to another account to make sure the mailgate isn’t losing the header.
I tried that … and the Ref header is NOT sent … although now from
the code it seems that this is not
taken into account by the mailgw …

Stuff, Blah, I’m boring.
nahhhhhhhh helfull :wink:

Go mbeanna� Dia sibh.

Fabrice.