Systems Support <syssup@sussex.ac.uk> wrote:
It turns out that "hostname -s" does very different things on linux and solaris hosts. On linux, it harmlessly reports the hostname, without qualifying it. On solaris, it silently changes the host name to "-s". This seems to cause Mailman to start throwing away mail, with error messages like " Low level smtp error: (8, 'node name or service name not known'), msgid: xxxx"
Now, this difference in behaviour, between harmless and bizarre, is the stuff of the Unix-haters' handbook http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/preface.html
However, It seems to me pretty disastrous that Mailman should throw away mail just because its own hostname changed.
The errors you report are from the Python smtplib module used by Mailman to send mail. See the FAQs at <http://wiki.list.org/x/-IA9> and <http://wiki.list.org/x/AoE9> for a little more info.
If you believe the smtplib errors are not valid in this case, it is a Python smtplib issue and would need to be addressed there.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan