Mailing List Archive

On 22 Jul 2002, John Horne wrote:

> I notice that the one_time router option cannot be used with
> headers_add/headers_remove. Can I ask why?

Because it doesn't work! When Exim turns a non-delivered "child" address
into a top-level address because of the one_time feature, it isn't
clever enough to remember that headers were added/deleted for that
address. (Indeed, it is only recently that it became clever enough to
remember an errors_address setting.)

> We used to use this
> combination in Exim 3; it's not a problem as such but originally caused
> a problem with our mail queue because all the queued mail had the same
> address (@plymouth.ac.uk).

It wouldn't have worked in Exim 3. Perhaps you never noticed?

--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.

On 22-Jul-2002 at 08:04:47 Philip Hazel wrote:
> On 22 Jul 2002, John Horne wrote:
>> I notice that the one_time router option cannot be used with
>> headers_add/headers_remove. Can I ask why?
>
> Because it doesn't work! When Exim turns a non-delivered "child" address
> into a top-level address because of the one_time feature, it isn't
> clever enough to remember that headers were added/deleted for that
> address. (Indeed, it is only recently that it became clever enough to
> remember an errors_address setting.)
>
>> We used to use this combination in Exim 3; it's not a problem as such
>> but originally caused a problem with our mail queue because all the
>> queued mail had the same address (@plymouth.ac.uk).
>
> It wouldn't have worked in Exim 3. Perhaps you never noticed?
>
Ooh err!?? Well the one_time sorted out the problem we had with the mail
queue, we later added a headers_remove option because we had added headers
from the other mailhub - all very convoluted, don't ask! However, I shall
check since if it wasn't working then I have nowt to worry about with Exim 4
:-)


John.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Horne, University of Plymouth, UK Tel: +44 (0)1752 233914
E-mail: jhorne@plymouth.ac.uk
PGP key available from public key servers

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, John Horne wrote:

> > It wouldn't have worked in Exim 3. Perhaps you never noticed?
> >
> Ooh err!?? Well the one_time sorted out the problem we had with the mail
> queue, we later added a headers_remove option because we had added headers
> from the other mailhub - all very convoluted, don't ask! However, I shall
> check since if it wasn't working then I have nowt to worry about with Exim 4

Perhaps I should elaborate on "it wouldn't have worked". The detail is
that it would have been inconsistent. If the addresses that passed
through the one_time director were delivered at the first attempt, the
headers_remove would have been acted on. However, for any that weren't
delivered, and thus were promoted to "top level" addresses because of
the one_time setting, there was no memory of headers_remove. Thus, at
the next delivery, when such addresses would no longer pass through that
director, the headers_remove wouldn't happen.


--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.