Email failing - /var/log/maillog shows "DSN: Can't create output"

[Paul Mancillas]

I have a RHEL AS 3 server and I'm trying to use a sendmail alias to forward mail to an email distribution list using the "include:" option in the /etc/aliases file. I can send email to a user on this server from another server, but if I send email to the alias I get the following error in the /var/log/maillog file:

May 13 14:45:13 paulm8 sendmail[9456]: i4DJjD3m009455: to=include: /root/linuxa
se, ctladdr= (8/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=*file*, pri=31057, dsn=5.0.0, stat=Can't create output
May 13 14:45:14 paulm8 sendmail[9456]: i4DJjD3m009455: i4DJjE3m009456: DSN: Can
't create output

I have looked at several threads that discuss this error and several of them say to check the permissions on /var/spool/mqueue and /var/spool/mail. The permissions on these files are OK. I have tried changing permissions on several other files but nothing has fixed this problem. What else do I need to check?

Thanks for your help,

Paul

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

dig paulm8.ccm.net

make sure you get a valid answer. If not, check /etc/resolv.conf and make sure the dns servers are reachable and responding properly.

If not, make appropriate changes.

/etc/nsswitch.conf for host needs to have DNS first.

mailq

Is the mail hanging up on the server

sendmail -q -v

Watch the interactive attempt to push the mail queue.

check sendmail.cf

If it has a DS directive, make sure that relay server allows relay from this servers ip address or hostname.

SEP

[Paul Mancillas]

Steven, thanks for the tips. The "paulm8" system is on the DNS server, so dig works fine. I changed the /etc/nsswitch.conf for host to have "dns" listed first but this did not help. Regarding the "sendmail -q -v", the output shows nothing in the queue. The DS directive in sendmail.cf is blank but I don't need that directive set. As I mentioned above, I can send email to a user on this server OK. Also, I can send email from this server out to the Internet OK. So the incoming and outgoing email works fine. It only fails when I try to use the "include: filename" alias on this server because it has to forward the incoming email to an outgoing path. Apparently, sendmail has to create a file on the server to do that and that is when I get the "DSN:Can't create output" error. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

[V.Tamilvanan]

Hi Paul,
Can you try by adding the following line in /etc/nsswitch.conf.

aliases files

[Stuart Browne]

dumb question.. you have any space left on '/var' ?

[Steven E. Protter]

This probably won't tell you much more but:

sendmail -v -d8 -d38 linuxase@paulm8.ccm.net
type some text

.


You will get complete diagnostics.

I have no idea what file needs to be created. I've never seen sendmail create files on the fly except in the /var/spool/mqueue

SEP

[Paul Mancillas]

I have tried several changes and I still get the message "DSN: Can't create output". I have also created an "include:file" email alias on another RHEL 3 server on the same network and I have the same problem with that server. So it seems to be a common problem with sendmail on RHEL 3. Has anybody else tried using "include:file" aliases with RHEL 3?

[Steven E. Protter]

Stuart may have hit the nail on the head.

Can you please post the output from the diagnostic commands recommeneded earlier.

Also, give the other nice folks some points, even if they didn't totally solve your problem.

I'll take zero. The others deserve a small reward for their efforts.

SEP

[Paul Mancillas]

Steven,
Thanks for prompting me to work on this problem again. Sorry for not responding sooner. I have plenty of free space (334MB) in /var. Here is the output from the "sendmail -v" command.

[root@paulm84 root]# sendmail -v -d8 -d38 linuxase@paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net
hello
.
linuxase@paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net... Connecting to [127.0.0.1] via relay...
220 paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.10/8.12.10; Thu, 27 May 2004 16:
15:50 -0500
>>> EHLO paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net
250-paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ETRN
250-AUTH GSSAPI DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5
250-DELIVERBY
250 HELP
>>> MAIL From: SIZE=6 AUTH=paulm@paulm84.ccm.cpqc
orp.net
250 2.1.0 ... Sender ok
>>> RCPT To:
>>> DATA
250 2.1.5 ... Recipient ok
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
>>> .
250 2.0.0 i4RLFoa5024344 Message accepted for delivery
linuxase@paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net... Sent (i4RLFoa5024344 Message accepted for de
livery)
Closing connection to [127.0.0.1]
>>> QUIT
221 2.0.0 paulm84.ccm.cpqcorp.net closing connection
[root@paulm84 root]#

I don't know what some of this output means but if you can help me solve this problem then I will gladly give you 100 points (if I can assign that many).

Thanks.

[Michael Miller_13]

I had this happen to me tonight I looked in my sendmail book and on google and found this post. Check your files permissions, my file was -rw-r--r-- I changed it to 660 -rw-rw---- and I checked my sendmail log and it was saying
"mailer=*file*, pri=34874, dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent" instead of "return to sender: Can't create output" and "mailer=*file*, pri=37476, dsn=5.0.0, stat=Can't create output". As allways with any deamon you may have to restart it when you make changes in the config file or file system changes before they will take affect. I did not post full log out-put or file system listings for security reasons.