[Mimedefang] Re: swatch script to email you when an error occurs.

Ole Craig olc at cs.umass.edu
Wed Feb 18 13:15:38 EST 2004


On 02/18/04 at 09:58, 'twas brillig and Jeremy Mates scrobe:
> * Ole Craig <olc at cs.umass.edu>
> > I think to be on the safe side, the script should also check to make
> > sure it was able to send the alert mail correctly, and email you if it
> > didn't... :-)
> 
> The swatch utility has a 'throttle' option, which should be used to
> limit notifications. Your log reporting system could otherwise start a
> Denial of Service attack, which might spiral out of control if the
> errors generate more e-mail, and so forth.

I know this, and it's not quite what I was getting at. I'm perhaps
guilty of excessive indirection in attempting to highlight that a
script which attempts to

	*send mail* 
when
	*the mail server is malfunctioning* 

may have larger issues.

	
		Ole

[It is, of course, perfectly possible that the script connects to a
different MTA than the one watched. That's not by any means a given,
however, and the OP didn't mention it.]

-- 
Ole Craig * UNIX, linux, SMTP-ninja; news, web; SGI martyr * CS Computing
Facility, UMass * <www.cs.umass.edu/~olc/pgppubkey.txt> for public key

  Where are the missing deficit-reduction program-related activities?



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