Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

Hi guys,

The weirdest thing happened today with postfix when upgrading our mail
relay from Lenny to Squeeze. My main.cf has a mynetworks directive
specifying which servers can relay without authenticating. It looked like this:

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
x.x.x.x
x.x.x.x
x.x.x.x

When I upgraded, things stopped working. After enabling smtpd debug,
I found that the new postfix was matching only the first line of the directive.
The previous postfix version was working flawlessly. When I changed this
line to:

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x

things went back normal. The odd fact is that in the postfix manual it
is stated
that:

[0] - "Mynetworks - Specify a list of network addresses or network/netmask
patterns, separated by commas and/or whitespace. Continue long lines by
starting the next line with whitespace."

Did somebody have this problem? Is this behavior expected? Am I missing
something here?


Thanks!

[0] - http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html#mynetworks

--
Pedro Eugênio Rocha


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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

On Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:20:34 -0300, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:

> The weirdest thing happened today with postfix when upgrading our mail
> relay from Lenny to Squeeze. My main.cf has a mynetworks directive
> specifying which servers can relay without authenticating. It looked
> like this:
>
> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
> x.x.x.x
> x.x.x.x
> x.x.x.x

And that was working fine for all the IP addresses? :-?

> When I upgraded, things stopped working. After enabling smtpd debug, I
> found that the new postfix was matching only the first line of the
> directive. The previous postfix version was working flawlessly. When I
> changed this line to:
>
> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x

This is the format I always use.

> things went back normal. The odd fact is that in the postfix manual it
> is stated
> that:
>
> [0] - "Mynetworks - Specify a list of network addresses or
> network/netmask patterns, separated by commas and/or whitespace.
> Continue long lines by starting the next line with whitespace."
>
> Did somebody have this problem? Is this behavior expected? Am I missing
> something here?

Mmmm... there has to be something wrong (then or now) given the other
format worked for you but after reading the decription from Postfix
manual I understand the allowed options (regarding long lines) are either:

# long lines
mynetworks = ip/block ip ip/block ip ip/block ip ip/block ip
ip/block ip
^
(whitespace goes up there)

# long lines
mynetworks = ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip,
ip/block,ip
^
(white space goes up there)

And Postfix is very nitpitcky with the correctness of the file formats :-)

Greetings,

--
Camaleón


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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 11:32 AM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:20:34 -0300, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:
>
>> The weirdest thing happened today with postfix when upgrading our mail
>> relay from Lenny to Squeeze. My main.cf has a mynetworks directive
>> specifying which servers can relay without authenticating. It looked
>> like this:
>>
>> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
>> x.x.x.x
>> x.x.x.x
>> x.x.x.x
>
> And that was working fine for all the IP addresses? :-?

Yes. It had worked for a couple of years... o.O

>
>> When I upgraded, things stopped working. After enabling smtpd debug, I
>> found that the new postfix was matching only the first line of the
>> directive. The previous postfix version was working flawlessly. When I
>> changed this line to:
>>
>> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x
>
> This is the format I always use.
>
>> things went back normal. The odd fact is that in the postfix manual it
>> is stated
>> that:
>>
>> [0] - "Mynetworks - Specify a list of network addresses or
>> network/netmask patterns, separated by commas and/or whitespace.
>> Continue long lines by starting the next line with whitespace."
>>
>> Did somebody have this problem? Is this behavior expected? Am I missing
>> something here?
>
> Mmmm... there has to be something wrong (then or now) given the other
> format worked for you but after reading the decription from Postfix
> manual I understand the allowed options (regarding long lines) are either:
>
> # long lines
> mynetworks = ip/block ip ip/block ip ip/block ip ip/block ip
> ip/block ip
> ^
> (whitespace goes up there)
>
> # long lines
> mynetworks = ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip, ip/block, ip,
> ip/block,ip
> ^
> (white space goes up there)
>
> And Postfix is very nitpitcky with the correctness of the file formats :-)

The weirdest thing is that it was working before the upgrade. Anyway, just
changing the format solves the problem, but finding where the problem was
gave me some headache and some email lost. :-}


Best,

>
> Greetings,
>
> --
> Camaleón
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
> Archive: http://lists.debian.org/k253db$kaf$2@ger.gmane.org
>



--
Pedro Eugênio Rocha


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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

On 9/3/2012 3:20 PM, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> The weirdest thing happened today with postfix when upgrading our mail
> relay from Lenny to Squeeze. My main.cf has a mynetworks directive
> specifying which servers can relay without authenticating. It looked like this:
>
> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
> x.x.x.x
> x.x.x.x
> x.x.x.x
>
> When I upgraded, things stopped working. After enabling smtpd debug,
> I found that the new postfix was matching only the first line of the directive.
> The previous postfix version was working flawlessly. When I changed this
> line to:
>
> mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x x.x.x.x
>
> things went back normal. The odd fact is that in the postfix manual it
> is stated
> that:
>
> [0] - "Mynetworks - Specify a list of network addresses or network/netmask
> patterns, separated by commas and/or whitespace. Continue long lines by
> starting the next line with whitespace."
>
> Did somebody have this problem? Is this behavior expected? Am I missing
> something here?

You likely had trailing white space after 127.0.0.0/8 which is not
allowed. Did you check your postfix logs?

--
Stan



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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

On 9/4/2012 10:58 AM, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:

> The weirdest thing is that it was working before the upgrade. Anyway, just
> changing the format solves the problem, but finding where the problem was
> gave me some headache and some email lost. :-}

http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html

Each logical line is in the form "parameter = value". Whitespace around
the "=" is ignored, as is whitespace at the end of a logical line.

Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose
first non-whitespace character is a `#'.

A logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with
whitespace continues a logical line.


Reading that carefully reveals your problem, which I already explained.
Whitespace at the end of a line terminates the line, making it a
logical line. Therefore, you cannot continue that logical line.
Therefore, the leading space on the following 3 lines causes Postfix to
ignore them, because logical lines begin with non-whitespace characters.

Thus, never use trailing whitespace in a Postfix configuration file.
Recent versions of Postfix are much pickier about enforcing
main/master.cf syntax. Postfix 2.9 even informs you of deprecated and
unused parameter definitions in your config files.

--
Stan




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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

Hi Stan,

I guess that explains the odd behavior. Probably the former version did not
enforce that restriction.

Thanks for the explanation


Best,

On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 2:42 PM, Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> wrote:
> On 9/4/2012 10:58 AM, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:
>
>> The weirdest thing is that it was working before the upgrade. Anyway, just
>> changing the format solves the problem, but finding where the problem was
>> gave me some headache and some email lost. :-}
>
> http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html
>
> Each logical line is in the form "parameter = value". Whitespace around
> the "=" is ignored, as is whitespace at the end of a logical line.
>
> Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose
> first non-whitespace character is a `#'.
>
> A logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with
> whitespace continues a logical line.
>
>
> Reading that carefully reveals your problem, which I already explained.
> Whitespace at the end of a line terminates the line, making it a
> logical line. Therefore, you cannot continue that logical line.
> Therefore, the leading space on the following 3 lines causes Postfix to
> ignore them, because logical lines begin with non-whitespace characters.
>
> Thus, never use trailing whitespace in a Postfix configuration file.
> Recent versions of Postfix are much pickier about enforcing
> main/master.cf syntax. Postfix 2.9 even informs you of deprecated and
> unused parameter definitions in your config files.
>
> --
> Stan
>
>
>



--
Pedro Eugênio Rocha


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Weird postfix problem when upgrading to Squeeze
 

Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> writes:

> On 9/4/2012 10:58 AM, Pedro Eugênio Rocha wrote:
>
>> The weirdest thing is that it was working before the upgrade. Anyway, just
>> changing the format solves the problem, but finding where the problem was
>> gave me some headache and some email lost. :-}
>
> http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html
>
> Each logical line is in the form "parameter = value". Whitespace around
> the "=" is ignored, as is whitespace at the end of a logical line.
>
> Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose
> first non-whitespace character is a `#'.
>
> A logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with
> whitespace continues a logical line.
>
>
> Reading that carefully reveals your problem, which I already explained.
> Whitespace at the end of a line terminates the line, making it a
> logical line.

That's flawed: If whitespace at the end of a line is ignored, it cannot
terminate the line and you can have as much whitespace as you like at
the end of lines.

> Therefore, you cannot continue that logical line.
> Therefore, the leading space on the following 3 lines causes Postfix to
> ignore them, because logical lines begin with non-whitespace characters.

You say above that a line starting with whitespace continues a logical
--- I would call it a virtual --- line. If the virtual line was already
terminated because there was (non-ignored) whitespace before(!) the end
of the line (whatever "end of the line" means; there is really no
whitespace in that sense /in between/ lines), then an error should have
been reported instead of just ignoring "random" lines that are not
whitespace-only and do not begin with a '#'.

In case the devs of postfix have made a conscious decision to make use
of whitespace in such an unusual way, I'd rather not use postfix because
I'd be in for too many surprises.


--
Debian testing amd64


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