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

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

[Glenn Morris]

gebser@speakeasy.net wrote:

> = > = (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.

Something is very broken if Emacs with those settings is trying to
use sendmail to, err, send mail.

> = > =       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?

Correct. Give it the name of the machine running the SMTP server.
The same thing as in the "smtp-server" field of your Pine config
(which I think you said was working).

> 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'.

There is no "smtp" library in the Emacs-20.7 distribution.
There is only smtpmail.el.

New guess: you have got a not-part-of-Emacs package called smtp.el
installed somewhere in your load path, and it is screwing things up.

Can you do:

M-x locate-library smtp 

and move the resulting file (both .el and .elc) somewhere harmless,
out of the Emacs load-path? Googling around, it seems that "smtp.el"
might be associated with a hacked smtpmail.el. You want to get rid of
that too, and make sure you are using the standard Emacs smtpmail.el
(located in share/emacs/20.7/lisp/mail). Once those non-Emacs files
are out of the way, restart Emacs and try again.

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

Yes - seems very broken.

mail authentication (was Re: mail: Sending...failed with exit value 71)

[gebser]

At 19:42 (UTC-0000) on Tue, 9 Dec 2003 Glenn Morris said:

= gebser@speakeasy.net wrote:
= 
= ...
= 
= New guess: you have got a not-part-of-Emacs package called smtp.el
= installed somewhere in your load path, and it is screwing things up.
= ...

Glenn,

You're a genius.  With all the paths to emacs, I didn't notice that I'd
installed flim in one of them; this was where the funky variables were
coming from and almost certainly where the bugs were being bred.  I
tar/gzip'd the whole package up, deleted the files, rebooted emacs, and
viola-- it's working now (almost...).  You're a genius.

New problem: Yes, emacs' mail is now working... to a degree.  I can send 
mail with it to myself, but only within the local machine.  If I try to 
send via my ISP, I get nothing.  That is to say, I know that emacs is 
connecting to the ISP and handing off the email, but it never gets 
delivered back to me.  I suspect that the ISP is simply tossing it out 
due to lack of authentication from me.  I found a couple functions 
alleged to remedy that:

     ;; Authenticate using this username and password against my server.
     (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
           '(("hostname" "port" "username" "password")))
     ;; Use STARTTLS without authentication against the server.
     (setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials
           '(("hostname" "port" nil nil)))
     

I don't know whether to fill in my hostname or that of my ISP, or the
one in one function and the other in the second function.  Also, I use a
couple different email addresses (usernames and passwords) on the same
ISP-- how would I handle that in (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials ...)?

Has anyone set this up before?  Tips much appreciated.  (Glenn, thanks 
again.)


tia,
ken