gnus fails sending mail

gnus fails sending mail

[ken]

relevant .emacs:

(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
(setq smtpmail-smtp-server "mail.boofy.net")
(require 'starttls)
(setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials
      '(("mail.boofy.net" 25 "activate" "xxxxx")))
(setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
(setq smtpmail-debug-verb t)

run: M-x gnus, C-x m, type test message, C-c m => error:

mh-temp buffer says:
post: aliasing error in .alias - error in line 'alias'
send: message not delivered to anyone

(What's my ~/.alias got to do with sending this email?  Why should it
cause it to fail?)


*Messages* buffer says:

Loading gnus-sum...done
Checking new news...done
Loading mh-e...done
inc +inbox...done
No new mail
Composing a message...done
Auto-saving...
Composing a message...
mh-read-draft: Draft preserved
Wrote /home/ken/Mail/draft
Sending...backgrounded

But message isn't delivered.

Re: gnus fails sending mail

[Kevin Rodgers]

ken wrote:
 > relevant .emacs:
 >
 > (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
 > (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "mail.boofy.net")
 > (require 'starttls)
 > (setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials
 >       '(("mail.boofy.net" 25 "activate" "xxxxx")))
 > (setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
 > (setq smtpmail-debug-verb t)
 >
 > run: M-x gnus, C-x m, type test message, C-c m => error:
 >
 > mh-temp buffer says:
 > post: aliasing error in .alias - error in line 'alias'
 > send: message not delivered to anyone
 >
 > (What's my ~/.alias got to do with sending this email?  Why should it
 > cause it to fail?)

Check the value of the mail-aliases variable (which defaults to t, in
sendmail.el).

 > *Messages* buffer says:
 >
 > Loading gnus-sum...done
 > Checking new news...done
 > Loading mh-e...done
 > inc +inbox...done
 > No new mail
 > Composing a message...done
 > Auto-saving...
 > Composing a message...
 > mh-read-draft: Draft preserved
 > Wrote /home/ken/Mail/draft
 > Sending...backgrounded
 >
 > But message isn't delivered.

What's all that mh stuff for?  You explicitly specified
smtpmail-send-it, but that last message is from mh-send-letter in
mh-comp.el.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers

Re: gnus fails sending mail

[ken]

Kevin,

Thanks very much for replying.

Kevin Rodgers wrote:

> ken wrote:
> > relevant .emacs:
> >
> > (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
> > (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "mail.boofy.net")
> > (require 'starttls)
> > (setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials
> >       '(("mail.boofy.net" 25 "activate" "xxxxx")))
> > (setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
> > (setq smtpmail-debug-verb t)
> >
> > run: M-x gnus, C-x m, type test message, C-c m => error:


I got one reply from gnu.emacs.gnus.  That person suggested a different
command for sending mail in gnus.  I'd explain what it is, but I don't
recall it and it's taking an awful long time now for quimby to send me
the list of posts.


> >
> > mh-temp buffer says:
> > post: aliasing error in .alias - error in line 'alias'
> > send: message not delivered to anyone
> >
> > (What's my ~/.alias got to do with sending this email?  Why should it
> > cause it to fail?)
>
> Check the value of the mail-aliases variable (which defaults to t, in
> sendmail.el).


C-h v mail-aliases:

mail-aliases's value is shown below.

Documentation:
Alist of mail address aliases,
or t meaning should be initialized from your mail aliases file.
(The file's name is normally `~/.mailrc', but your MAILRC environment
variable can override that name.)
The alias definitions in the file have this form:
    alias ALIAS MEANING

Defined in `sendmail'.

Value:
[... shows what seems to be my ~/.mailrc file in reverse and translated
into elisp...]

>
> > *Messages* buffer says:
> >
> > Loading gnus-sum...done
> > Checking new news...done
> > Loading mh-e...done
> > inc +inbox...done
> > No new mail
> > Composing a message...done
> > Auto-saving...
> > Composing a message...
> > mh-read-draft: Draft preserved
> > Wrote /home/ken/Mail/draft
> > Sending...backgrounded
> >
> > But message isn't delivered.
>
> What's all that mh stuff for?  You explicitly specified
> smtpmail-send-it, but that last message is from mh-send-letter in
> mh-comp.el.


That other command (mentioned above) didn't use mh.  But it still didn't
deliver the mail, gave me this in *Messages*:

...

Loading sendmail...
Loading ~/.emacs-mail (source)...done
Loading sendmail...done
Loading mailalias...done
Loading mailabbrev...done
Parsing /home/ken/.mailrc... done
Sending...done
...

I searched through the whole ~/Mail/* tree and found nothing that even
resembled that email... not even any file timestamped within three days
of when I tried to send this.


Thanks again for the reply.

-- 
A lot of us are working harder than we want, at things we don't like to
do.  Why? ...In order to afford the sort of existence we don't care to live.
	-- Bradford Angier

Re: gnus fails sending mail

[Kevin Rodgers]

ken wrote:
 > Kevin Rodgers wrote:
 > > ken wrote:
 > > > mh-temp buffer says:
 > > > post: aliasing error in .alias - error in line 'alias'
 > > > send: message not delivered to anyone
 > > >
 > > > (What's my ~/.alias got to do with sending this email?  Why should it
 > > > cause it to fail?)
 > >
 > > Check the value of the mail-aliases variable (which defaults to t, in
 > > sendmail.el).
 >
 > C-h v mail-aliases:
 >
 > mail-aliases's value is shown below.
 >
 > Documentation:
 > Alist of mail address aliases,
 > or t meaning should be initialized from your mail aliases file.
 > (The file's name is normally `~/.mailrc', but your MAILRC environment
 > variable can override that name.)
 > The alias definitions in the file have this form:
 >     alias ALIAS MEANING
 >
 > Defined in `sendmail'.
 >
 > Value:
 > [... shows what seems to be my ~/.mailrc file in reverse and translated
 > into elisp...]

If you don't want your ~/.mailrc file to be read by Emacs, set
mail-aliases to nil in your ~/.emacs file.

But you should find out why gnus is invoking mh/post instead of
sendmail, and fix that.

And you might want to examine your ~/.mailrc file -- if mh/post is
choking on it, there might be actually be an error in it.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers