Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:3032 comp.mail.sendmail:1416 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!msir From: msir@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Mark Sirota) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Bouncing mail for expired users Message-ID: <5637@ur-cc.UUCP> Date: 7 Mar 90 00:12:48 GMT Reply-To: Mark Sirota Organization: Univ. of Rochester, Computing Center Lines: 43 What I think I want to do is create an alias in sendmail's alias file which will cause a message to bounce, but with a particular message. Let me give you the whole story. For a variety of reasons I don't wish to go into on this forum, there is a lag between the time that users here get expired (they can no longer log in) and the time their account gets completely deleted. Unfortunately, during this period, mail can still be delivered to them, but can never be read. What I would like to do is to bounce mail for such users back to the sender, with a useful message, like "Account expired." I use sendmail for mailing, and would be inclined to use a sendmail alias to do this. I don't want to write over the users' .forward file, since I consider that to be the property of the user. Sendmail normally returns mail to unknown users with messages like ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 550 foo... User unknown ----- Unsent message follows ----- I'd love to somehow get this to say something like 550 foo... User expired without modifying sendmail. If I could create an alias like foo: "user expired" That might bounce as 550 "user expired"... User unknown which would be acceptable. (I don't know if that's what actually happens; I haven't tried it yet.) Without further ado, my question to you is: In this situation, how would you handle it? Should I be bouncing this mail at all? (I think the sender should know that the mail can never be read. I also want to bounce the original, not just send a message back with vacation(1) or something.) If so, how should I make it bounce? Please feel free to brainstorm. Thanks in advance. -- Mark Sirota - University of Rochester, Rochester, NY Internet: msir@cc.rochester.edu Bitnet: msir@uordbv.bitnet UUCP: {decvax,harvard,ames,rutgers}!rochester!ur-cc!msir