🚀 go-pugleaf

barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr) writes:
|Sorry, I have to agree with John Stanley on this one.  In addition
|to the scenario John mentioned, consider the following:
[scenario which make outdoing mail fail from a site]

With respect, any system, reliable or not, can be buggered up.  That doesn't
make the system unreliable (ie, it does not change its underlying character).

   Mr. Stanley is raving mad (in the sense of angry, not insane, but
also consider fingering him and making up your own mind) and is
arguing events which may well have taken place somewhere, some time.
They are seriously unusual and do not justify the establishment of the
return receipt mechanism.

  York is the second-largest and second-cheapest university in Canada,
and one of our three main mailhubs processes between 100 and 200
thousand messages per month (see below). 

Jun 1991 4729 x
Jul 1991 4423 x
Aug 1991 43405 xxxxx
Sep 1991 84828 xxxxxxxxx
Oct 1991 62510 xxxxxxx
Nov 1991 164421 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dec 1991 202805 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jan 1992 93286 xxxxxxxxxx
Feb 1992 116862 xxxxxxxxxxxx
Mar 1992 132674 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Apr 1992 137614 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
May 1992 144873 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jun 1992 112393 xxxxxxxxxxxx
Jul 1992 186773 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aug 1992 115636 xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sep 1992 122207 xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oct 1992 202904 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nov 1992 193313 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dec 1992 191306 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 It is a rare event and a major concern when messages go missing or
unanswered in a given month: my job depends on the reliable operation
of SMTP.
  If memory serves, we had about three panics (searches for missing
messages) last year, out of 1.8m+.  That still makes my blood run cold...

--dave 
ps: we use Rayan's Zmailer from UofT and pop/imap: the comment
  below about sendmail is becoming less and less true. (Special thanks
  to ozan for leading me to the true religion: zmailer is programmable
  by mere mortals)
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | davecb@CCS.YorkU.CA | lethe!dave
72 Abitibi Ave.,      | 
Willowdale, Ontario,  | York Postmaster and
CANADA. 416-223-8968  | occasional sendfail(8) consultant.