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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/installing/email.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/installing/email.md | 81 |
1 files changed, 78 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/docs/installing/email.md b/docs/installing/email.md index 90d7a74a6..44476cefa 100644 --- a/docs/installing/email.md +++ b/docs/installing/email.md @@ -340,8 +340,7 @@ delivery report email using the `mail` command on a new server: apt-get install mailutils If emails are not being received by your Alaveteli install, we have some -more troubleshooting tips for incoming mail in [the manual install -guide]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/manual_install/#troubleshooting). +more troubleshooting tips for incoming mail in [general email troubleshooting]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/email#general-email-troubleshooting). @@ -547,9 +546,85 @@ message routing in the same way: transport = alaveteli_mailin_transport If emails are not being received by your Alaveteli install, we have some -more troubleshooting tips for incoming mail in [the manual install guide]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/manual_install/#troubleshooting). There is also a +more troubleshooting tips for incoming mail in the next section. There is also a great [Exim Cheatsheet](http://bradthemad.org/tech/notes/exim_cheatsheet.php) online that you may find useful. +## General Email Troubleshooting + +First, you need to check that your MTA is delivering relevant +incoming emails to the `script/mailin` command. There are various +ways of setting your MTA up to do this; we have documented +one way of doing it +[in Exim]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/email/#example-setup-on-exim4), including [a command you can use]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/email/#troubleshooting-exim) to check that the email +routing is set up correctly. We've also documented one way of setting up [Postfix]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/email/#example-setup-on-postfix), with a similar [debugging command]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/installing/email/#troubleshooting-postfix). + +Second, you need to test that the mailin script itself is working +correctly, by running it from the command line, First, find a +valid "To" address for a request in your system. You can do this +through your site's admin interface, or from the command line, +like so: + + $ ./script/console + Loading development environment (Rails 2.3.14) + >> InfoRequest.find_by_url_title("why_do_you_have_such_a_fancy_dog").incoming_email + => "request-101-50929748@localhost" + +Now take the source of a valid email (there are some sample emails in +`spec/fixtures/files/`); edit the `To:` header to match this address; +and then pipe it through the mailin script. A non-zero exit code +means there was a problem. For example: + + $ cp spec/fixtures/files/incoming-request-plain.email /tmp/ + $ perl -pi -e 's/^To:.*/To: <request-101-50929748@localhost>/' /tmp/incoming-request-plain.email + $ ./script/mailin < /tmp/incoming-request-plain.email + $ echo $? + 75 + +The `mailin` script emails the details of any errors to +`CONTACT_EMAIL` (from your `general.yml` file). A common problem is +for the user that the MTA runs as not to have write access to +`files/raw_emails/`. + +If everything seems fine locally, you should also check from another +computer connected to the Internet that the DNS for your chosen +domain indicates that your Alaveteli server is handling mail, and +that your server is receiving mail on port 25. The following +command is a query to ask which server is handling the mail for +the domain `example.com`, which receives the answer `mail.example.com`. + + $ host -t mx example.com + example.com mail is handled by 5 mail.example.com. + +This next command tries to connect to port 25, the standard SMTP +port, on `mail.example.com`, and is refused. + + $ telnet mail.example.com 25 + Trying 10.10.10.30... + telnet: connect to address 10.10.10.30: Connection refused + +The transcript below shows a successful connection where the server +accepts mail for delivery (the commands you would type are prefixed +by a `$`): + + $ telnet 10.10.10.30 25 + Trying 10.10.10.30... + Connected to 10.10.10.30. + Escape character is '^]'. + 220 mail.example.com ESMTP Exim 4.80 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 11:10:39 +0000 + $ HELO X + 250 mail.example.com Hello X [10.10.10.1] + $ MAIL FROM: <test@local.domain> + 250 OK + $ RCPT TO:<foi+request-1234@example.com> + 250 Accepted + $ DATA + 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by itself + $ Subject: Test + $ + $ This is a test mail. + $ . + 250 OK id=1XHA03-0001Vx-Qn + QUIT |