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List:       exim-users
Subject:    Re: [Exim] Temporary defer on callouts
From:       David Woodhouse <dwmw2 () infradead ! org>
Date:       2004-01-31 23:07:53
Message-ID: 1075590473.28540.78.camel () imladris ! demon ! co ! uk
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On Sat, 2004-01-31 at 08:48 -0800, Bill Moseley wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 31, 2004 at 04:32:51PM +0000, Alan J. Flavell wrote:
> 
> > However, I think you're missing the point.  The envelope-sender
> > address that will be advertised on items that are distributed by the
> > mailing list will be the address of the list administrator, or of the
> > automated bounce-processing daemon, *not* the list-submission address.
> 
> My bad wording -- I said "boucing subscribers" meaning "bouncing from
> addresses that are subscribed."

If you think that alters Alan's answer in any way then I suspect you are
misunderstanding both him, me and the way that mailing lists work.

The list receives mail for exim-users@exim.org, and it sends that mail
back out to all the subscribers.

It obviously doesn't send the mail out with the same SMTP reverse-path
as the original incoming mail -- that would mean that any bounces from
invalid subscription addresses go directly to the original poster.
Instead, it sets the SMTP reverse-path to an address @exim.org so that
it can do something about the bouncing addresses on its list.

It does _not_ send its outgoing mail with the reverse-path set to
exim-users@exim.org; the list address. If it did that, it would mean
that any bounces actually go to the list itself. That would be just as
bad as going to the original sender.

Instead, it's using a _different_ address for its outgoing mail. It's
using the address exim-users-admin@exim.org, and mail received for
_that_ address is fed to the list software, so that invalid addresses
can automatically be removed from the list.

The machine accepts bounces for exim-users-admin@exim.org -- of course
it needs to. What it does _not_ accept is bounces to
exim-users@exim.org. That address is _never_ used as the SMTP
reverse-path of valid mail, and hence should _never_ be receiving
bounces.

The only messages you get to lists with an empty reverse-path are spam,
viruses and responses to such. And messages from broken autoresponders.
That's why it's acceptable not to accept bounces.

--
dwmw2



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