sendmail: stat=Deferred: Can't assign requested address

[Derek Ragona]

At 10:16 PM 6/12/2008, jonathan michaels wrote:
>greetings, derek,
>
>much appreciated the prompt reply
>
>On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 12:43:42PM -0500, Derek Ragona wrote:
> > At 06:36 AM 6/11/2008, jonathan michaels wrote:
>
>bit of history trimed for brevity
>
> > >in teh freebsd.mc/sendmail.mc and a 'make install' to cover all
> > >bases.
> > >
> > >i treied to restart teh mailqueue ... no luck .. grrr
> > >
> > >  and then an entry into the mailertable
> > >
> > >. esmpt:mail.caamora.com.au
> > >
> > >again did the make whatever thingie and ... tried to post,
> > >again this defered post business .. can't asign ..
> > >
> > >there is something going on here that i donot understand ..
> > >some enlightenment would be appreciated, please.
> > >
> > >the few bits i found in yahoosearch engine, google resfuses me
> > >access still but yahoo i can use. i looked uo the error message
> > >and turned up this one endrt refereing to teh linux incedent, i
> > >have a copy of bat book ed 1 it just says it exists, same for
> > >smart_host mail_hub macros.
> > >
> > >is there some way to fix this short of upgrading and mvoing to
> > >postfix ?? i don't have teh needed stuff to do that just yet
> > >(me and hardware issues)
> > >
> > >it looks like i've missed somethings but i don't know enough
> > >about freebsd v6.x to know even where to start to look for this
> > >one .. aside from this  i have another v6.2 host that also was
> > >doing the same thing but after i copied a working set of
> > >sendmail configs and restarted sendmail it work properly except
> > >teh it dosent forward the "charlie root" mail from teh
> > >maintenece events (at 2 am. 3 am and 4 am from teh /etc/cron
> > >events) the mail itesm just sit in teh /var/mail/root folder
> > >
> > >it has taken me just under 6 mnths to get this far, i've come
> > >to teh end of my rope and am seriously thinking of going back
> > >to freebsd v2.2.5 ..
> > >
> > >regards/appreciations/much graciousnessess
> > >
> > >jonathan
> >
> > You need to have in /etc/mail/mailertable:
> > .caamora.com.au esmpt:mail.caamora.com.au
> > and rebuild mailertable.db
>
>should not the "esmpt:" rather be "esmtp:" most of teh literature that
>i have read recently says it the esmtp way .. i live with dsylexia
>amongst other neurological disabilities and need to double/triple/add a
>few more time to check things before i am confident of success (not
>failing) based on 'spelling' alone.

Yes, I must have a typo in my reply, sorry.


> > In /etc/mail/domaintable:
> > mail.caamora.com.au
> > and rebuild domaintable.db
>
>i used to run a uucp mail service for several clients back in teh
>fidonet days (internet to fidonet gateway) and this made sence then,
>now i fali to understand the need .. i just do not know and would
>appreciate a bit of an explanation please ..
>
>mail.caamora.com.au is an alias (in the dns file and /etc/hosts) for
>the machine seaholm.caamora.com.au which is the primary mailserver for
>the domain .caamora.com.au ... is not tthe domaintable used to remap an
>old domain to a new domain name after some soprt of a change or to use
>names in 'rule 3' mappings .. if i have missunderstood my readings i
>apoloise, i am new to sendmail fiddlings, i set it up ten years ago and
>it worked i now have to relearn who and why .. my disabilities have
>gotten a bit worse because of teh medicines i need to take and this
>makes learning a bit on teh harder side .. but not impossible <gentle
>smile>

I "assume" that mail.caamora.com.au is the name the MX record points to, 
sendmail and most mail transfer applications strictly use the DNS MX record 
to resolve the names, and you need this entry to assure your server "knows" 
it is the recipient and sender for that domain.  Otherwise it tries to send 
the mail elseware and it becomes undeliverable as you had seen in the logs.


>
> > in /etc/mail/local-host-names:
> > caamora.com.au
>
>check, it was done long time ago
>
> > and double check your MX record and /etc/hosts
>
>  i looked at my dns files and found a small disaprity from a name
>change about 2 years ago, i made teh change in teh main file but forgot
>to carry it into teh reverse lookup file, grrrr.
>
>as for the MX records they have been much teh same for about 15 years,
>i like long term stability makes for peace of mind <grin>, the down
>side is that when things go wrong like this, it is a nightmare to
>recall what, how did/done way back when the system was built/changed
>last .. makes for lots of work sometimes.

If you update DNS files, be sure to change the serial number in the file so 
the new file is propagated.


> > Once that is all done, execute:
> > /etc/rc.sendmail stop
> > wait until all instances die then:
> > /etc/rc.sendmail start
>
>ok .. did teh checks, made teh changes, even the domaintable, though i
>don;t understand how it works, the only thing i don't do as you wrote
>was teh esmpt .. i used teh more popular esmtp ??

That should be fine now.


>apart from fixing teh esmtp mistype i did it all and checked teh mx
>host my dns setup and still its dead in teh water, still defering all
>mail out from this box.
>
>might it have some thing to do with this line in teh sendmail config
>line it is commented out ??
>
>the one reference that i found on teh world wide internet made some
>sort of reference to this being the cause in the linux machine that had
>a similar issue back in 2003 ???
>
># SMTP client options
>#O ClientPortOptions=Family=inet, Address=0.0.0.0
>
>
>what would happen if i uncommented this line in teh sendmail.cf file ?
>
>also, what use are teh sendmail config files that are named 
>/etc/mail/host,name.cf

There are multiple instances of sendmail required to be run now.  Once uses 
submit.cf, and the other uses sendmail.cf  Typically you only need to 
change the .mc file that is used to build the sendmail.cf file.  Typically 
you can sue one of the sample freebsd.mc files in /etc/mail as a start to 
make the sendmail.cf file.



>when i forst installed freebsd in this machine it built these files and
>since then nothing has touched the two files .. what are they for what
>do they do in teh sendmail hiearchay ??? please ?

There are files installed in /etc/mail as samples and as running 
files.  However the sendmail.cf installed may need customization for your 
settings and any customization you may require.  I find it best to always 
build a sendmail.cf file, and then test it out.


>this is a really confusing situation, i've got nowhere else to go for
>informations
>
>much appreciations for teh help.
>
>kind regards

If you make DNS or sendmail configurations changes be sure to restart these 
services so the new configurations are used.

         -Derek

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