I'm suddenly having trouble with my SMTP provider refusing
to accept my outgoing email. I *think* it's because my
envelope sender field is empty, and I haven't succeeded in
getting my MTA, exim4, to use the correct value.

There are two reasons why I think the envelope sender field is
empty. First, when exim attempts to send a message, it reports
this conversation with the SMTP server (comments in []):

SMTP<< 220 mailfront10.runbox.com ESMTP Exim 4.82 [snip]
SMTP>> EHLO pisaster.localdomain
SMTP<< 250-mailfront10.runbox.com Hello 71-84-9-95 [snip]
250-SIZE 136314880
250-8BITMIME
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
250-STARTTLS
250 HELP
SMTP>> STARTTLS
SMTP<< 220 TLS go ahead
SMTP>> EHLO pisaster.localdomain
SMTP<< 250-mailfront10.runbox.com Hello 71-84-9-95 [snip]
250-SIZE 136314880
250-8BITMIME
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
250 HELP
SMTP>> MAIL FROM:<> SIZE=4391 [*** Note the <>]
SMTP>> RCPT TO:<myname@runbox.com>
SMTP>> DATA
SMTP<< 250 OK
SMTP<< 550 71.84.9.95 is listed at zen.spamhaus.org
SMTP<< 503-All RCPT commands were rejected with this error:
503-71.84.9.95 is listed at zen.spamhaus.org
503 Valid RCPT command must precede DATA
SMTP>> QUIT

(zen.spamhaus.org is reporting that my ISP, Charter, urges that nobody
but Charter should provide SMTP service to this IP address. Charter's
SMTP service is atrocious, so I use Runbox's SMTP service. Runbox says
that zen.spamhaus.org would not be consulted if my email were
"configured properly". I infer that it's the "MAIL FROM:<>" causing the trouble.)

Secondly, when I list the queue of waiting-to-go-out messages,
I see this:

$ sudo mailq -v
13h 1.5K 1cpQmP-0006iu-1K <> *** frozen ***
myname@runbox.com

10h 1.5K 1cpTYV-0007BK-6I <> *** frozen ***
myname@runbox.com

10h 1.6K 1cpTmP-0007DE-H6 <> *** frozen ***
myname@runbox.com

As I understand it, the "<>" is supposed to be the envelope sender
address. If so, the value is not getting correctly set.

I have created files named

/etc/exim4/conf.d/main/000_localmacros
/etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros

containing the line

MAIN_TRUSTED_USERS = uucp:peter

Also, the files

./exim4.conf.template
./conf.d/main/02_exim4-config_options

contain the line

untrusted_set_sender = *

and my .muttrc contains the line

set sendmail="/usr/lib/sendmail -oi -fmyname@runbox.com"

and I can't think of anything more I can do to get the correct
envelope sender address into play.

I'm sorry for the length of this post, and for the feeling that this
might be more of an exim question than a mutt question. Any guidance
would be much appreciated.

--
To email me, substitute nowhere->runbox, invalid->com.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 19 Mar 2017 16:37:35 GMT, Peter Pearson <pkpearson@nowhere.invalid> wrote:

I'm suddenly having trouble with my SMTP provider refusing
to accept my outgoing email. I *think* it's because my
envelope sender field is empty, and I haven't succeeded in
getting my MTA, exim4, to use the correct value.

Although I haven't solved the problem of getting a non-null envelope
sender field, I *have* found that if I give my MTA the correct login information for my SMTP provider, then the successful login makes my
SMTP provider tolerant of the null envelope sender field, and it will
now accept my mail.

TLDR: The question remains unanswered, but is no longer urgent.

--
To email me, substitute nowhere->runbox, invalid->com.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sun, 2017-03-19, Peter Pearson wrote:

On 19 Mar 2017 16:37:35 GMT, Peter Pearson <pkpearson@nowhere.invalid> wrote:

I'm suddenly having trouble with my SMTP provider refusing
to accept my outgoing email. I *think* it's because my
envelope sender field is empty, and I haven't succeeded in
getting my MTA, exim4, to use the correct value.

Although I haven't solved the problem of getting a non-null envelope
sender field, I *have* found that if I give my MTA the correct login information for my SMTP provider, then the successful login makes my
SMTP provider tolerant of the null envelope sender field, and it will
now accept my mail.

TLDR: The question remains unanswered, but is no longer urgent.

Note though that you may not get bounce messages when you
e.g. misspell an address. That can lead to unfortunate
misunderstandings.

For me it would still be semi-urgent.

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Oo o. . .
\X/ snipabacken.se> O o .

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2017-03-19 17:34, Peter Pearson wrote:

Ever since sendmail, it has seemed that configuring an MTA for my
simple needs is more difficult than writing one.

Why not ask in the exim-users mailing list? It seems to be the proper
place for this issue. And we're very friendly there :-)

https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users

--
Please *no* private Cc: on mailing lists and newsgroups
Personal signed mail: please _encrypt_ and sign
Don't clear-text sign: http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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