Sendmail delays

[Grant Ozolins]

Hi List,

Quite often when I try to send mail from either PHP or mutt (and 
probably other processes too), it takes Sendmail some multiple of 5 
seconds to accept the email and let the calling process get on with 
things, i.e. 30, 35, 45, 55 seconds to accept the mail.

My system is based around FC3-minimal on a dual opteron 244 box

I'm using the stock sendmail.mc file except that I have

dnlFEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl

and

dnlDAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

Commented.  I initially thought this might be a greet_pause type thing, 
but it's not actually implemented.

Any pointers towards relevant info or suggestions would be very 
gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,

[Jay Lee]

Grant Ozolins wrote:
> Hi List,
>
> Quite often when I try to send mail from either PHP or mutt (and 
> probably other processes too), it takes Sendmail some multiple of 5 
> seconds to accept the email and let the calling process get on with 
> things, i.e. 30, 35, 45, 55 seconds to accept the mail.
>
> My system is based around FC3-minimal on a dual opteron 244 box
>
> I'm using the stock sendmail.mc file except that I have
>
> dnlFEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl
>
> and
>
> dnlDAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
>
> Commented.  I initially thought this might be a greet_pause type thing, 
> but it's not actually implemented.

Sounds like DNS to me.  Even if sendmail is configured to accept 
unresolvable domains, it's going to sit there a long time waiting.  What 
does:

nslookup `hostname`

return?  I'm not sure if sendmail uses /etc/hosts but try adding the 
output of hostname to /etc/hosts on the same line as "127.0.0.1 
localhost localhost.localdomain"

Jay

[Grant Ozolins]

Jay Lee wrote:
> Grant Ozolins wrote:
> > Hi List,
> >
> > Quite often when I try to send mail from either PHP or mutt (and 
> > probably other processes too), it takes Sendmail some multiple of 5 
> > seconds to accept the email and let the calling process get on with 
> > things, i.e. 30, 35, 45, 55 seconds to accept the mail.
> >
> > My system is based around FC3-minimal on a dual opteron 244 box
> >
> > I'm using the stock sendmail.mc file except that I have
> >
> > dnlFEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl
> >
> > and
> >
> > dnlDAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
> >
> > Commented.  I initially thought this might be a greet_pause type 
> > thing, but it's not actually implemented.
>
> Sounds like DNS to me.  Even if sendmail is configured to accept 
> unresolvable domains, it's going to sit there a long time waiting.  What 
> does:
>
> nslookup `hostname`
>
> return?  I'm not sure if sendmail uses /etc/hosts but try adding the 
> output of hostname to /etc/hosts on the same line as "127.0.0.1 
> localhost localhost.localdomain"
>
> Jay

Hi Jay

Thanks so much for your reply - I do actually have my hostname in 
/etc/hosts - the wierd thing to me is that (I should have mentioned in 
my previous post) I was getting no such delay on FC3-32 on the same 
hardware - but with FC3-x86_64 the delay is present.

Thanks a lot,
Grant

[Jay Lee]

Grant Ozolins wrote:
> Jay Lee wrote:
> > Grant Ozolins wrote:
> > > Hi List,
> > >
> > > Quite often when I try to send mail from either PHP or mutt (and 
> > > probably other processes too), it takes Sendmail some multiple of 5 
> > > seconds to accept the email and let the calling process get on with 
> > > things, i.e. 30, 35, 45, 55 seconds to accept the mail.
> > >
> > > My system is based around FC3-minimal on a dual opteron 244 box
> > >
> > > I'm using the stock sendmail.mc file except that I have
> > >
> > > dnlFEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl
> > >
> > > and
> > >
> > > dnlDAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
> > >
> > > Commented.  I initially thought this might be a greet_pause type 
> > > thing, but it's not actually implemented.
> >
> > Sounds like DNS to me.  Even if sendmail is configured to accept 
> > unresolvable domains, it's going to sit there a long time waiting.  
> > What does:
> >
> > nslookup `hostname`
> >
> > return?  I'm not sure if sendmail uses /etc/hosts but try adding the 
> > output of hostname to /etc/hosts on the same line as "127.0.0.1 
> > localhost localhost.localdomain"
> >
> > Jay
>
> Hi Jay
>
> Thanks so much for your reply - I do actually have my hostname in 
> /etc/hosts - the wierd thing to me is that (I should have mentioned in 
> my previous post) I was getting no such delay on FC3-32 on the same 
> hardware - but with FC3-x86_64 the delay is present.

Did you run the command?  What was the output?

Jay

[Grant Ozolins]

Jay Lee wrote:
> Grant Ozolins wrote:
> > Jay Lee wrote:
> > > Sounds like DNS to me.  Even if sendmail is configured to accept 
> > > unresolvable domains, it's going to sit there a long time waiting.  
> > > What does:
> > >
> > > nslookup `hostname`
> > >
> > > return?  I'm not sure if sendmail uses /etc/hosts but try adding the 
> > > output of hostname to /etc/hosts on the same line as "127.0.0.1 
> > > localhost localhost.localdomain"
> > >
> > > Jay
> >
> > Thanks so much for your reply - I do actually have my hostname in 
> > /etc/hosts - the wierd thing to me is that (I should have mentioned 
> > in my previous post) I was getting no such delay on FC3-32 on the 
> > same hardware - but with FC3-x86_64 the delay is present.
>
> Did you run the command?  What was the output?

Hi Jay,

(thankyou very much for taking an interest in my issue - if however you 
would prefer me to not reply to your personal email also please tell me 
- I will absolutely respect that - Grant)

The output of nslookup `hostname` is the exepected hostname and IP 
address (obfuscated here for reasons of commercial paranoia)

[root@sv6 mail]# nslookup `hostname `
Server:         195.40.1.250
Address:        195.40.1.250#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   server.firebox.com
Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

I've added the name to the loopback line in /etc/hosts, but no luck so far.