[Discuss] Mail loop advice?

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Richard Pieri)]

Daniel Barrett wrote:
> Postfix was sending "552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed limit."
> A Google search tells me that 5.3.4 is a fatal error code because of
> the initial "5," but for whatever reason, it kept getting resent.

       552 Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocation

Code 552 typically occurs when a user's spool reaches or exceeds a set 
quota or when the entire spool file system fills up. This is one of the 
correctable "permanent" errors in the 5xy reply codes. RFC 2821 permits 
retries to 5xy reply codes and this is one of the codes where retries 
are usually preferred.

Everything after the initial 3-digit code is ignored by the MTA. The 
extended X.Y.Z code and descriptive string are for human perusal in log 
files and bounces.

I suggest that the cause of the problem is forwarding the output from 
fetchmail to your MTA instead of feeding the output to a local MDA like 
procmail. Each time fetchmail tried to forward the large message to your 
MTA it generated a bounce back to the RCN server which dully stored it 
in your spool file, which was then downloaded by fetchmail and forwarded 
to your MTA which generated a bounce back to the RCN server which dully 
stored it in your spool file, which.... I think you get the point.

-- 
Rich P.