On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 12:11:17PM -0400, D'Arcy J.M. Cain wrote:
> I think that 5xx errors should be reserved for situations where we know
> that there is something wrong with the email itself.

This is especially true for error code 75. From "sysexits.h":

#define EX_TEMPFAIL	75	/* temp failure; user is invited to retry */

At least for "sendmail" this means to accept the e-mail, put it (back)
in the queue and try to invoke the pipe mailer again during the next
queue run. It doesn't generate any kind of error.

I use this to reduce the load caused py "procmail" and "spamassassin".
If the system load is greater or equal to 8.0 e-mails aren't processed
any more and end up in the queue instead.

This is the only way to stop my friend's K6-III@400MHz from coming to a
grinding halt if a few hours of e-mail get thrown at it after a power
or network outage.

	Kind regards

-- 
Matthias Scheler                                  http://zhadum.org.uk/