ETRN

Synopsis

ETRN [/?] [/V[+|-]] [/E[+|-]] [/HELO[+|-]] [/BYIP[+|-]] [/SRV_SUPERDOMAINS[+|-]] [/SRV_SELF[+|-]] [/IP6ADDR[+|-]] [/IMPLICIT[+|-]] [/CLIENTIP[+|-]] [/CLIENTPORT[+|-]] [/C] [/D] [/H] myname  servers …

Description

The ETRN command is a utility for hosts that have intermittent connections to Internet, such as a dial-up connection over a modem, that have arranged for their mail to be delivered elsewhere (via an MX DNS resource record) and queued whilst they are not connected. It sends a trigger event to the secondary SMTP Relay server where the mail is queued, telling it that the target's SMTP Relay server is now online and ready to accept mail.

This trigger event is an ETRN SMTP verb sent to the SMTP Relay server. The ETRN command connects to each of the the SMTP Relay servers specified on its command line, and sends them an ETRN verb. The SMTP Relay server is expected to initiate queue processing in response and deliver any mail destined for the named host, domain, or channel.

The use of the ETRN command will vary according to how the dial-up connection works. Usually an ETRN command, with the name of one's ISP's mailhost as an argument, is placed in a REXX script that is run whenever a SLIP/PPP connection is successfully made.

Whether one's ISP requires the /D, /H, or /C option will vary according to the ISP's configuration and whatever mail software is in use on the mailhost. Not all mail softwares even have a concept of a "channel", for example. If none of the options is supplied, the default action is to act as if the /H option had been used.

Examples

To attempt to trigger remote delivery of mail queued for the domain my.domain on the server mailhub.remote.domain:

[c:\]etrn /d my.domain mailhub.remote.domain

Command-specific options

/V
Display the SMTP conversation as it happens.
/E
Ignore SMTP protocol errors.
/HELO
Enable sending an EHLO/HELO command first. HELO and EHLO are not required parts of the ETRN protocol and good servers will just ignore them if they are sent. Sending them is in most cases just a waste of a round-trip delay.
/C channel
Trigger remote delivery of mail in the named channel. What a "channel" is is defined by the target MTS.
/D domain
Trigger remote delivery of mail for the named domain and its subdomains.
/H host
Trigger remote delivery of mail for the named host.

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