Cannot send email using Exim and Dovecot

Question

I've been trying to debug this issue since last week, but I have no clue on what's going on, I have tried to find the answers myself but no luck.

I've been trying to send emails, from info@domain.com to info@domain.com, or from myaccount@other-domain.com to info@domain.com, but the recipient was always flagged as never_users.

it always produces this kind of log in the main.log file:

2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gU-4D <= info@mail.domain.com H=smtpbrn09tsel.my-isp-provider.com [114.124.216.1] P=esmtpa A=dovecot_plain:info S=690 id=9b34c0ae-bee0-c656-dc92-5ef332cf9f8b@domain.com
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gU-4D User 0 set for mail_test_transport transport is on the never_users list
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gU-4D == root@mail.domain.com <info@domain.com> R=mail_test_router T=mail_test_transport defer (-29): User 0 set for mail_test_transport transport is on the never_users list
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gU-4D ** root@mail.domain.com <postmaster@mail.domain.com>: retry timeout exceeded
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l <= <> R=1oDfDA-0000gU-4D U=exim P=local S=2022
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gU-4D Completed
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l User 0 set for mail_test_transport transport is on the never_users list
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l == root@mail.domain.com <info@mail.domain.com> R=mail_test_router T=mail_test_transport defer (-29): User 0 set for mail_test_transport transport is on the never_users list
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l ** root@mail.domain.com <postmaster@mail.domain.com>: retry timeout exceeded
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l root@mail.domain.com <postmaster@mail.domain.com>: error ignored
2022-07-19 12:51:56 1oDfDA-0000gY-6l Completed

Note that, this is my config for the never_users:

never_users = root

When I run exim -bt info, it produces this:

root@mail.domain.com
    <-- postmaster@mail.domain.com
    <-- info@mail.domain.com
  router = mail_test_router, transport = mail_test_transport

it looks like the info@domain.com is translated to root@mail.domain.com, CMIIW, but I have no idea how to fix this.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '22 at 07:47

I have finally found the workaround for this, and put it here, hopefully, it can be useful for anyone having the same issue.

So I decided to create another user:

useradd -s /sbin/nologin mail-test
passwd mail-test

Then I commented out 2 lines in the exim.conf:

web_test_transport:
  driver = pipe
  command = /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/mail-exim/artisan mail:process
  #user = root
  #group = root

Then, I restarted the exim service.

After that I sent an email to mail-test@domain.com, and voila! it's not marked as never_users anymore.

Cannot send email using Exim and Dovecot

1 Answers1