fetchmail-users

[fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Otto R. <ot...@ap...>]

Hi, 

I'm new to this list so if this topic was previously covered - I do 
apologize in advance. 

I am using fetchmail 6.3.5-13 under Suse 10.2 (kernel  2.6.18.2-34-default). 

I am doing a fetchmail from my ISP to my local server with the following 
command: 

fetchmail -K -F -f /menu/fetchmailrc  where fetchmailrc is 

poll mail.sg.gs protocol pop3 username ro...@aa... password SECRET to 
ro...@aa... 

My ISP's email server is using QMAIL. 

Fetchmail works just fine, however often times it DOES NOT delete the read 
message on the ISP's side (in each case it is definitely a JUNK mails) as 
per the log file below. I understand the problem and I have read the part 
about fetchmail/qmail however - 

IS ther ANY WAY for have fetchmail FORCE-DELETE these emails of the ISP 
server?? 

Thanks and rgds. Otto. 

Fetchmail log: (I have blanked out some fields)
============== 

<snip>...
fetchmail: POP3> RETR 3
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
reading message ro...@aa...@mail.sg.gs:3 of 13 (17679 octets)
About to rewrite Return-Path: <egt...@sc...>
Rewritten version is Return-Path: <egt...@sc...> 

About to rewrite From: patch to <egt...@sc...>
Rewritten version is From: patch to <egt...@sc...> 

About to rewrite To: aa...@aa...
Rewritten version is To: aa...@aa... 

fetchmail: forwarding to localhost
fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<egt...@sc...>
fetchmail: SMTP< 451 DNS temporary failure (#4.3.0)
fetchmail: SMTP> RSET
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 flushed
fetchmail: message ro...@aa....@mail.sg.gs:3 was not the expected length 
(17967 actual != 17679 expected)
not flushed 

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 2/2/07, Otto Rodusek <ot...@ap...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am using fetchmail 6.3.5-13 under Suse 10.2 (kernel  2.6.18.2-34-default).

6.3.6 came out recently, though it won't help here you should upgrade.

> Fetchmail works just fine, however often times it DOES NOT delete the read
> message on the ISP's side (in each case it is definitely a JUNK mails) as
> per the log file below. I understand the problem and I have read the part
> about fetchmail/qmail however -
>
> IS ther ANY WAY for have fetchmail FORCE-DELETE these emails of the ISP
> server??
<---SNIP--->
> fetchmail: SMTP< 451 DNS temporary failure (#4.3.0)

That is the actual problem I suspect - a temporary DNS failure.  You
could risk using the 451 code as an anti-spam code to flush the
emails, but if you do that you risk also dropping valid email.

Fetchmail is always conservative about these things for good reason :)

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Otto Rodusek schrieb am 2007-02-02:

> I am doing a fetchmail from my ISP to my local server with the following 
> command: 
> 
> fetchmail -K -F -f /menu/fetchmailrc  where fetchmailrc is 
> 
> poll mail.sg.gs protocol pop3 username ro...@aa... password SECRET to 
> ro...@aa... 
> 
> My ISP's email server is using QMAIL. 

The qmail pop server has been known for a while to miscalculate message
lenghts, violating RFC-1939, but you can't bother DJB to fix this...
http://home.pages.de/~mandree/qmail-bugs.html section 3.4

> Fetchmail works just fine, however often times it DOES NOT delete the read 
> message on the ISP's side (in each case it is definitely a JUNK mails) as 
> per the log file below. I understand the problem and I have read the part 
> about fetchmail/qmail however - 

Tell the ISP not to accept junk mail.

> IS ther ANY WAY for have fetchmail FORCE-DELETE these emails of the ISP 
> server?? 

Yes, but as Rob correctly states, that way would endanger your
legitimate mail.

> fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<egt...@sc...>
> fetchmail: SMTP< 451 DNS temporary failure (#4.3.0)

DNS problem or the upstream should not accept messages from unresolvable
domains. This prevents flushing your messages.

> fetchmail: SMTP> RSET
> fetchmail: SMTP< 250 flushed
> fetchmail: message ro...@aa....@mail.sg.gs:3 was not the expected length 
> (17967 actual != 17679 expected)

Not related to your problem (fetchmail only reports this for your
information, but it's nothing more; fetchmail pretends this problem
hadn't existed after it's reported it.)

-- 
Matthias Andree

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Otto R. (AP-SGP) <ot...@ap...>]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the reply. I agree about the 451 error and other things about 
fetchmail being conservative. I have been monitoring the situation for 
quite some time and in EACH case it happens that the faulty emails are 
spam. So the question again is - is there ANY WAY at all to get 
fetchmail to FORCE-DELETE these emails. I'm willing to take the risk and 
have tried various parameters but to no avail (I use the -F to flush but 
as you can see from the log it doesn't. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks. 
Rgds. Otto.

Rob MacGregor wrote:
> On 2/2/07, Otto Rodusek <ot...@ap...> wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am using fetchmail 6.3.5-13 under Suse 10.2 (kernel  2.6.18.2-34-default).
>>     
>
> 6.3.6 came out recently, though it won't help here you should upgrade.
>
>   
>> Fetchmail works just fine, however often times it DOES NOT delete the read
>> message on the ISP's side (in each case it is definitely a JUNK mails) as
>> per the log file below. I understand the problem and I have read the part
>> about fetchmail/qmail however -
>>
>> IS ther ANY WAY for have fetchmail FORCE-DELETE these emails of the ISP
>> server??
>>     
> <---SNIP--->
>   
>> fetchmail: SMTP< 451 DNS temporary failure (#4.3.0)
>>     
>
> That is the actual problem I suspect - a temporary DNS failure.  You
> could risk using the 451 code as an anti-spam code to flush the
> emails, but if you do that you risk also dropping valid email.
>
> Fetchmail is always conservative about these things for good reason :)
>
>   

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

Please don't top post.

On 2/3/07, Otto Rodusek (AP-SGP) <ot...@ap...> wrote:
>
>  Hi Rob,
>
>  Thanks for the reply. I agree about the 451 error and other things about
> fetchmail being conservative. I have been monitoring the situation for quite
> some time and in EACH case it happens that the faulty emails are spam. So
> the question again is - is there ANY WAY at all to get fetchmail to
> FORCE-DELETE these emails. I'm willing to take the risk and have tried
> various parameters but to no avail (I use the -F to flush but as you can see
> from the log it doesn't. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks. Rgds. Otto.

The problem is that YOUR local SMTP server is returning a temporary
delivery failure so fetchmail is keeping the email.  You can either:

a) Get your ISP to not accept email from unresolvable domains (which
no ISP ever should)
b) Switch ISP to one with a clue
c) Configure your local SMTP server to provide a permanent delivery
failure on DNS lookup failures, which risks losing email
d) Configure fetchmail with the 451 code as an anti-spam code, and
risk losing email

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Otto R. (AP-SGP) <ot...@ap...>]

Hi Matthias,

Thanks for your reply. From your reply, it would imply that fetchmail 
would flush or delete these email - however it doesn't. After about a 
month, I'll have quite a number of these mails on the ISP's server and 
on each fetchmail run (it runs ever 10 minutes in cron) i would see a 
lot of these SAME unflushed emails (as per the log on on first email). 
Am I using the wrong parameter or am I missing a parameter? I am willing 
to take the risk and consequences if there is a parameter in fetchmail 
that will FORCE-DELETE or FLUSH these emails.

I ran my fetchmail manually and it download 58 emails of which 9 were 
faulty and not flushed (as per the log).
I then ran fetchmail again within seconds of the first on finishing and 
indeed there were only 9 messages on the server and again it did not flush.
I then ran fetchmail again for a third time within seconds of the second 
run, and the same 9 messages were still on the server - i just couldn't 
get fetchmail to "flush" or delete these emails.

Any help is much appreciated. Rgds. Otto.

Matthias Andree wrote:
> Otto Rodusek schrieb am 2007-02-02:
>
>   
>> I am doing a fetchmail from my ISP to my local server with the following 
>> command: 
>>
>> fetchmail -K -F -f /menu/fetchmailrc  where fetchmailrc is 
>>
>> poll mail.sg.gs protocol pop3 username ro...@aa... password SECRET to 
>> ro...@aa... 
>>
>> My ISP's email server is using QMAIL. 
>>     
>
> The qmail pop server has been known for a while to miscalculate message
> lenghts, violating RFC-1939, but you can't bother DJB to fix this...
> http://home.pages.de/~mandree/qmail-bugs.html section 3.4
>
>   
>> Fetchmail works just fine, however often times it DOES NOT delete the read 
>> message on the ISP's side (in each case it is definitely a JUNK mails) as 
>> per the log file below. I understand the problem and I have read the part 
>> about fetchmail/qmail however - 
>>     
>
> Tell the ISP not to accept junk mail.
>
>   
>> IS ther ANY WAY for have fetchmail FORCE-DELETE these emails of the ISP 
>> server?? 
>>     
>
> Yes, but as Rob correctly states, that way would endanger your
> legitimate mail.
>
>   
>> fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<egt...@sc...>
>> fetchmail: SMTP< 451 DNS temporary failure (#4.3.0)
>>     
>
> DNS problem or the upstream should not accept messages from unresolvable
> domains. This prevents flushing your messages.
>
>   
>> fetchmail: SMTP> RSET
>> fetchmail: SMTP< 250 flushed
>> fetchmail: message ro...@aa....@mail.sg.gs:3 was not the expected length 
>> (17967 actual != 17679 expected)
>>     
>
> Not related to your problem (fetchmail only reports this for your
> information, but it's nothing more; fetchmail pretends this problem
> hadn't existed after it's reported it.)
>
>   

Re: [fetchmail-users] message...was not the expected length...not flushed

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Otto Rodusek (AP-SGP) schrieb am 2007-02-03:

> Thanks for your reply. From your reply, it would imply that fetchmail 
> would flush or delete these email - however it doesn't. After about a 

No, it wouldn't, and your upstream ISP shouldn't accept them in the
first place. Talk to them. There is a vast choice of qmail front-ends
that perform various additional checks before accepting a message.

> month, I'll have quite a number of these mails on the ISP's server and 
> on each fetchmail run (it runs ever 10 minutes in cron) i would see a 
> lot of these SAME unflushed emails (as per the log on on first email). 
> Am I using the wrong parameter or am I missing a parameter? I am willing 
> to take the risk and consequences if there is a parameter in fetchmail 
> that will FORCE-DELETE or FLUSH these emails.

Check the antispam configuration option, but that's a bad solution - if
you are 100% sure it's not a local issue, you should really talk to the
ISP instead and have them refuse messages from nonexistent or
nonresolvable domains.

> I ran my fetchmail manually and it download 58 emails of which 9 were 
> faulty and not flushed (as per the log).

fetchmail hasn't downloaded them and seen a "temporary" error code, so
it assumes the download will work in the future.


Please do trim your quotes next time, and do not top-post.

-- 
Matthias Andree