[Xymon] Replacing the smtp test in protocols.cfg

[J.C. Cleaver]

My memory is a bit hazy from back then, but there seemed to be cases where
mail servers would immediately respond with a 4xx or 5xx error state after
a MAIL from in certain cases, which would mean the service was down enough
that you'd want a banner check to note it.

That being said, it's been a while since the heyday of MTA craziness and
there are probably fewer of us running sendmail servers on single-core
Athlon's with sky-high load averages.

The MAIL command itself doesn't seem to cause errors to be logged on my
systems, but I know it has for others.

-jc


On Fri, March 25, 2016 12:25 pm, Richard Hamilton wrote:
> Unless someone remembers the origin of that, I doubt you'll ever know for
> sure why.  It might have been a workaround for some mail server quirk, or
> simply a mistake.  If for some reason it works better with _any_ extra
> command before QUIT, perhaps NOOP (no-op) would be the best candidate. :-)
>
> On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 2:12 PM, John Thurston <john.thurston at alaska.gov>
> wrote:
>
>> On 3/24/2016 3:39 PM, J.C. Cleaver wrote:
>> - snip -
>>
>>> Two questions:
>>>>> Is there anyone for whom this test is _not_ filling up the error log
>>>>> on
>>>>> their smtp server?
>>>>>
>>>>> If I edit the native protocol.cfg, am I correct that I'll need to
>>>>> replace
>>>>> protocols.cfg with each code update?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> One option here is to place your edits in a separate file included at
>>> the
>>> top.
>>>
>>
>> Dang. I hadn't thought of that.  I've now done this and the new test
>> definitions behave as expected.
>>
>> My first question, however, remains unanswered.
>>
>> Is there anyone using the SMTP test for whom the test is _not_
>> generating
>> smtp 50X error results?
>>
>> Why is the xymon protocol test sending a blatantly invalid command
>> "mail\r\n" to the smtp server?
>>
>> The smtp verb MAIL must be followed with something to mail. Xymonnet
>> isn't
>> considering the response to this "send" string, only the response the
>> smtp
>> server gives to the initial connection. Where is the benefit of sending
>> anything other than a "quit\r\n" to politely close the connection and
>> free
>> the smtp server-resources?
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>    Do things because you should, not just because you can.
>>
>> John Thurston    907-465-8591
>> John.Thurston at alaska.gov
>> Enterprise Technology Services
>> Department of Administration
>> State of Alaska
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