Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!gamiddle
From: gamiddle@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton)
Subject: what should maphostname() do when disconnected from the net?
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.200709.18664@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1991 20:07:09 GMT
Lines: 16

[Using 5.65+IDA+DECWRL sendmail]

If the nameserver is temporarily out-to-lunch (usually because our link to the
rest of the net is down), maphostname() (in daemon.c) will fail.  This may
not be the right thing to do, since the resolver sets a TRY_AGAIN status; but
there is no way to let the rest of the program know that the error is a soft
one.

If we're calling $[...$] from the config file to look up a name, it thinks
that there is no such host.  We have been using the IDA extension to $[...$]
(which sets a default if the host is not found) to return a "no such host"
error message, but it now seems unreliable.  Has anybody else encountered this
problem?

 -Guy Middleton, Math Faculty Postmaster, University of Waterloo
  gamiddleton@watmath.waterloo.edu or gamiddleton@watmath.uwaterloo.ca