MAIL FAIL - ???

[Alexis Rosen]

In article <1991Mar12.050859.5111 at intacc.uucp> mann at intacc.uucp (Jeff Mann) writes:
>I keep getting these messages in my uucp LOGFILE about MAIL FAIL, and messages
>like these being sent back to root on the machine that sent the mail:
>
>	From uucp  Sun Mar 10 04:02:54 1991 remote from intacc
>	Received: by intacc (5.61/SMI-3.2)
>		id AA02693; Sun, 10 Mar 91 04:02:54 PST
>	Date: Sun, 10 Mar 91 04:02:54 PST
>	From: intacc!uucp (0000-UUCP Admin(0000))
>	Message-Id: <9103101202.AA02693 at intacc>
>	To: yunexus!root
>
>	Mail failed (PATH=/bin:/usr/bin LOGNAME=uucp TZ=`/bin/cat rmail mann ). 
>	Letter returned to sender.
>
>I can't figure this out. Notice the TZ=`/bin/cat rmail mann - this should 
>obviously be TZ=`/bin/cat /etc/TIMEZONE` rmail mann - where does this come
>from, and how does it get truncated? Is it part of uuxqt (wouldn't be
>surprised considering how f**ed up uuxqt is...)

Sort of. The bug is actually in a library routine that's supposed to read
/etc/TIMEZONE if TZ isn't in the environment, but instead does the crap you've
seen.

You need to set TZ in the environment before you invoke uucico or uuxqt. Both
are extremely stupid when running without knowlege of the correct time zone.
So, you need to add to uudemon.hr (or any polling scripts you use) the line
TZ=`/bin/cat /etc/TIMEZONE` ; export TZ
sometime before you invoke uucico.

---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis