Re: mail: Sending...failed with exit value 71

[gebser]

At 01:37 (UTC-0000) on Tue, 9 Dec 2003 Glenn Morris said:

= ...
= 
= Yes, that's what the code I posted was intended to do. Did you try it?
= What happened? What were the contents of the Trace buffer?

That's what I had configured when I first posted about this problem... 
when I first got the "exit value 71" message.  And though I have the 
debug line in .emacs, I'm not getting a Trace buffer.

= ...
= >
= > = (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it  ; for Gnus
= > =       send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it          ; for other things

Yep.  What I had.  And still have.

= ...
= 
= > =       smtpmail-debug-info t    ; only while you sort out this issue

This line isn't giving me a Trace buffer.


= > =       smtpmail-smtp-server "your.mail.server")

The arg here-- assuming a dynamic connection-- would be the remote
machine's (ISP's) server.  I.e., I don't want to point it at my own
sendmail, correct?


= >
= > Here's what I've had in my .emacs (irrelevant customizations edited 
= > out):
= >
= > (custom-set-variables
= >  '(mail-default-reply-to "gebser@speakeasy.net")
= >  '(mail-host-address "speakeasy.net")
= >  '(smtp-default-server "mail.speakeasy.net")
= 
= That variable does not appear in either Emacs 20.7 or 21.3, AFAICS.
= smtpmail-default-smtp-server does though.

I'm running emacs v.20.7.1 and it's there.


= 
= >  '(message-send-mail-function (quote smtpmail-send-it))
= 
= OK, but that's only for Gnus. Try sticking a:
= 
= '(send-mail-function (quote smtpmail-send-it))

Yep, got it.


= 
= in after that.
= 
= >  '(mail-send-nonascii nil)
= >  '(smtp-server "mail.speakeasy.net")
= 
= Again, no such variable. smtpmail-smtp-server, yes.

C-h v smtp-server:

smtp-server's value is 
"mail.speakeasy.net"

Documentation:
The name of the host running SMTP server.
It can also be a function
called from `smtp-via-smtp' with arguments SENDER and RECIPIENTS.

You can customize this variable.

Defined in `smtp'.



= 
= >  '(user-mail-address "gebser@speakeasy.net")
= >  '(gnus-secondary-servers (quote ("news.chi.sbcglobal.net")))
= >  '(smtp-fqdn "mousecar.net")
= 
= No such variable. Where did you get this? Is it XEmacs stuff or
= something? 

C-h v smtp-fqdn:

smtp-fqdn's value is 
"mousecar.net"

Documentation:
Fully qualified domain name used for Message-ID.

You can customize this variable.

Defined in `smtp'.


= ...
= >
= > ----------------------------------------------
= > Smtpmail Queue Dir: [Hide] ~/Mail/queued-mail/
= >    [State]: this option is unchanged from its standard setting.
= > Directory where `smtpmail.el' stores queued mail.
= > ----------------------------------------------
= >
= > Though I haven't found it documented anywhere, I'm guessing that this is 
= > the directory used when emacs does it's *own* queuing, i.e., *not* using 
= > sendmail.
= 
= Yes. Useful if you're not always on-line and want to store mail
= before sending it in one go. By setting smtpmail-queue-mail to t as
= you have done above, you indicate you want this behaviour.

So emacs shouldn't be using the local sendmail at all, should it?  But 
from the error messages we saw, it is.  

Add to this, the creation of a transcript file in sendmail is part of
the queuing process-- what the logged sendmail error mentions.  So this
would seem to be where the smoke is coming from, but without more 
information, it's hard to know what to try next.

There was a thread over the past week or so about the quality of
documentation.  It would seem that this is another area which needs some
work.  Much of what is provided in the Customize section (which is the
same as that provided in the function and variable declarations
themselves) is very brief and not very enlightening.

= 
= All I can suggest is to try setting send-mail-function, other than
= that, I don't know. Lots more info at:
= 
= http://josefsson.org/smtpmail.html

Yeah, I found that with a google and read most of it already.  Emacs 
needs more docs like that.


= 
= 
= PS I don't need a CC, as the Mail-Copies-To header tries to indicate.

Sorry about that.  For some reason that's the default way that pine (my
current MUA)  handles it.  I can change this of course and do change it
occasionally, but sometimes I forget.  I believe that mailman, the
mailing list software, can be set up so that the default reply-to is the
list.  Until it is, we'll just have to rely on my memory to edit the 
headers before sending.


= 
= PPS Your messages seem to be explicitly going to both the mailing list
= and the newsgroup. This means they show up twice on the newsgroup (and
= I guess the mailing list as well), since they are gatewayed and
= essentially the same thing.

My bad.  This is documented at 
<http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs> but didn't notice 
it until just now.  Thanks for letting me know about it.


Glenn, thanks also for all the time and energy you've put in to trying
to help out.  Much appreciated.


ken