sending mail on lan...

[Andrew Oliver]

On Aug 1, 2007, at 3:33 PM, Jerry LeVan wrote:

> Well I told postfix that localdomain was ok and entered the info  
> into /etc/hosts
>
> A fragment:
> 192.168.1.40    laser
> 192.168.1.50    vpc
> 192.168.1.60    jerrypc
> 192.168.1.70    linuxbox
> 192.168.1.80    mpb.localdomain mpb
> 192.168.1.90    server.localdomain server
> ::1             localhost
>
> when I send mail to jerry at server.localdomain the mail log shows..
> Aug  1 18:23:02 mbp postfix/qmgr[3388]: C20E5145C25: from=<jerry at localhost.localdomain 
> >, size=548, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
> Aug  1 18:23:02 mbp postfix/smtp[3461]: C20E5145C25: to=<jerry at server.localdomain 
> >, orig_to=<jerry at server>, relay=none, delay=0, status=bounced (Host  
> or domain name not found. Name service error for  
> name=server.localdomain type=A: Host not found)
>
> It looks like postfix is not using the hosts file.
>
> Is there any way to tell it to try hosts first then other thingees?

This is not a hosts file issue, per se.

Since you addressed the mail to 'jerry at server.localdomain' it performs  
a *MX lookup* on 'server.localdomain', not a simple name lookup - it's  
looking for the mail server responsible for server.localdomain, and  
that's what's failing.

You should be able to get away with addressing the mail to:  
jerry@[server.localdomain] which tells the MTA to bypass the MX lookup  
and send to the specified host.

The alternative is to setup DNS so that you can set an MX record for  
server.localdomain (and another for mbp.localdomain).

Andrew
:)