[fetchmail]Solution: MDA returned nonzero status 65

[Matthias Andree]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Barsalou wrote:

> I have been getting these messages which I believe are "Host unknown"
> errors from sendmail.  After some bit of research, I have decided that
> all of these (although all is a strong word) entries are SPAM.  My
> solution to this was to write this script called spamstop:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> /usr/sbin/sendmail $1 $2 $3 $4 $5

Just use "$@" unless you have an ancient shell that wants something
else.

> if [ $? == 65 ] ; then
>   exit 0
> fi
> exit $?

This is bogus. 1. POSIX shells don't have ==, use = instead.
2. The if [ ... spoils $?.

Try something like

#! /bin/sh
/usr/sbin/sendmail "$@"
a=$?
if [ $a = 65 ] ; then
  exit 0
fi
exit $a

> This traps those errors and fetchmail flushes the mail.  I tried using
> 'antispam 65' but for whatever reason, that didn't work.

antispam applies to SMTP replies, not to sendmail exit status codes.

> Additionally I have been getting:
> 
> fetchmail: Query status=2 (SOCKET)
> 
> This I was able to resolve by using:
> 
> antispam 451

For an MDA configuration? Looks like rather like some random hiccup.
As written above, antispam does not apply to sendmail exit codes.

> Also, for this to work I have an mda line that looks like this:
> 
> mda "~/spamstop -i -oem -f %F %T"
> 
> Can anyone see a better way to deal with this?

Re-read the sendmail operation manual for what -oem does and if you
really want the m in there.

-- 
Matthias Andree