postfix forwarding issue

December 29, 2013 7.9k views
michael387421
By:
michael387421
I have setup a postfix server and set the MX record, SPF, and DKIM up to attempt to have a virtual mail forwarder. (for instance me@mydomain.com should forward to myalias@gmail.com) All appears well in the logs but gmail can only receive mail sent with sendmail from the console, but not when forwarded by the virtual rules. This works: > sendmail me@mydomain.com > Test > ctrl-d and results in a mail.log of: > Dec 29 15:55:19 www postfix/pickup[27575]: D6D3BE19EC: uid=0 from= > Dec 29 15:55:19 www postfix/cleanup[27580]: D6D3BE19EC: message-id=<20131229205519.D6D3BE19EC@mail.mydomain.com> > Dec 29 15:55:19 www postfix/qmgr[27576]: D6D3BE19EC: from=, size=290, nrcpt=1 (queue active) > Dec 29 15:55:21 www postfix/smtp[27582]: D6D3BE19EC: to=, orig_to=, relay=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[74.125.137.26]:25, delay=3.6, delays=2.2/0/0.51/0.88, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 2.0.0 OK 1388350521 t39si43670816yhp.150 - gsmtp) > Dec 29 15:55:21 www postfix/qmgr[27576]: D6D3BE19EC: removed and a e-mail on gmail with the following header: > Delivered-To: myalias@gmail.com > Received: by 10.112.214.134 with SMTP id oa6csp248797lbc; > Sun, 29 Dec 2013 12:55:21 -0800 (PST) > X-Received: by 10.236.16.41 with SMTP id g29mr42719681yhg.17.1388350521272; > Sun, 29 Dec 2013 12:55:21 -0800 (PST) > Return-Path: > Received: from mail.mydomain.com (www.mydomain.com. [x.x.x.x]) > by mx.google.com with ESMTP id t39si43670816yhp.150.2013.12.29.12.55.20 > for ; > Sun, 29 Dec 2013 12:55:20 -0800 (PST) > Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of root@mydomain.com designates x.x.x.x as permitted sender) client-ip=x.x.x.x; > Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; > spf=pass (google.com: domain of root@mydomain.com designates x.x.x.x as permitted sender) smtp.mail=root@mydomain.com; > dkim=pass (test mode) header.i=@mydomain.com > Received: by mail.mydomain.com (Postfix, from userid 0) > id D6D3BE19EC; Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:55:19 -0500 (EST) > DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mydomain.com; > s=mail; t=1388350519; > bh=g3zLYH4xKxcPrHOD18z9YfpQcnk/GaJedfustWU5uGs=; h=Date:From:From; > b=HuJJBtPKQsF5VTwRWR7fhviOHX2gYlmqzK1P+kybHDEiFkWiFg1UfUGZX/LPprRO1 > zlzupc4Hizp/7jPcqTcagkm0R+3NhKVR2n7xNDG4c7JO0V7EiW4CF0x689NzizwsSY > IyrLprJu5PAlL6f7KXm0HScfi4l8pdrVkVEBMEpA= > Message-Id: <20131229205519.D6D3BE19EC@mail.mydomain.com> > Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:55:17 -0500 (EST) > From: root@mydomain.com (root) > > test When I send an e-mail to me@mydomain.com from gmail the following log results but no e-mail arrives in my gmail box or spam box: > Dec 29 15:57:46 www postfix/smtpd[27586]: warning: dict_nis_init: NIS domain name not set - NIS lookups disabled > Dec 29 15:57:46 www postfix/smtpd[27586]: connect from mail-la0-f48.google.com[209.85.215.48] > Dec 29 15:57:47 www postfix/smtpd[27586]: 25F9FE19EA: client=mail-la0-f48.google.com[209.85.215.48] > Dec 29 15:57:47 www postfix/cleanup[27590]: 25F9FE19EA: message-id= > Dec 29 15:57:47 www postfix/qmgr[27576]: 25F9FE19EA: from=, size=1747, nrcpt=1 (queue active) > Dec 29 15:57:47 www postfix/smtpd[27586]: disconnect from mail-la0-f48.google.com[209.85.215.48] > Dec 29 15:57:48 www postfix/smtp[27591]: 25F9FE19EA: to=, orig_to=, relay=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[74.125.137.26]:25, delay=1.5, delays=0.54/0/0.39/0.58, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 2.0.0 OK 1388350668 v3si43678694yhd.138 - gsmtp) > Dec 29 15:57:48 www postfix/qmgr[27576]: 25F9FE19EA: removed The postfix/smtp is identical to the one that delivers properly from sendmail. Closest question I've found is: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/can-send-but-not-receive-email-centos-postfix But DKIM and SPF does not appear to be the problem based on the full header result show a spf=pass and dkim=pass.
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6 Answers
iohazard December 30, 2013
Okay I think the issue is a gmail only silliness that organizes the email by the "Message-ID" field. So when it gets the e-mail forwarded back it just leaves the sent version and never delivers it to the inbox.

To avoid this you have to add the account into gmail as an alias. (and not check not an alias)
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  • wildcaribe January 24, 2015

    Hi iohazar,

    I had exactly the same issue as you and this thread is being very useful to me.

    Nevertheless, I´m stuck in this step since I don´t know which credentials should I use when adding my postfix email account to gmail.

    Can you help me on that?

    Report
kamaln7 MOD December 30, 2013
Did you check your Spam folder? Is the email there or do you not receive it at all?
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iohazard December 30, 2013
It does not show up in the spam filter. Based on the mail from root it appears that SPF and DKIM are both working so I would think it is something pretty bad to make it reject it outright. Of course all I have to go on that suggest it's going out is the postfix/smtp line that says sent.
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iohazard December 30, 2013
Okay I took it to a new level and sniffed the outgoing smtp session to see if it made it into google's server:
tcpdump -l -s0 -w - tcp dst port 25 | strings

It looks like it is sending it out so I'm not sure what gives:

JEHLO mail.mydomain.com
UTJ}
cMAIL FROM: SIZE=1755
UTJ}
zRCPT TO:
UTJ}
DATA
UTJ}
0Received: from mail-lb0-f181.google.com (mail-lb0-f181.google.com [209.85.217.181])
by mail.mydomain.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6641FE19F6
for ; Mon, 30 Dec 2013 14:20:49 -0500 (EST)
Authentication-Results: mail.mydomain.com; dkim=pass
reason="2048-bit key; insecure key"
header.d=gmail.com header.i=@gmail.com header.b=mxTtCKp6;
dkim-adsp=pass; dkim-atps=neutral
Received: by mail-lb0-f181.google.com with SMTP id q8so5827277lbi.12
for ; Mon, 30 Dec 2013 11:20:48 -0800 (PST)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
d=gmail.com; s=20120113;
h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
bh=ppUKk8ESYlJZsRuZ0cEXf7GqUyAxDklN/LCG1aC8bgk=;
b=mxTtCKp60FlT0FvNYDXdydHo8+bt7tjZKA59wKnEaE4zcSNUA56A2ONazXPLCv77eD
kGXIp4I7HKICKkqSlmm9janyhJZFzMSwm0yNggItnBLgwuT5Yy38qc0I2WL2FxC2hZgc
FDl56rFU3780tLG4qnqbVuO9rp+S0g42zBYPVrK8tU6+ZXXMJEk268FFbUHemWPyO9ra
ytGmrloaqYtVknJXtwepqM2lfc5BIYUANMQQTHnlEpYwPg6dcEvPgE4CXb95xZ58Wz5p
+dA7vrc6ctUQgP+0hmyGab2RcKl14zeg70xkoJPdt1kdS13kQaM75HZ03zvuBSAhgcg/
p46w==
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Received: by 10.112.12.229 with SMTP id b5mr585009lbc.90.1388431248317; Mon,
30 Dec 2013 11:20:48 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.112.214.134 with HTTP; Mon, 30 Dec 2013 11:20:48 -0800 (PST)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:20:48 -0
UTJ}
0600
Message-ID:
Subject: s
From: Michael Johnson
To: me@mydomain.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001a11c39c4659e35404eec557a9
--001a11c39c4659e35404eec557a9
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
--001a11c39c4659e35404eec557a9
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
s


--001a11c39c4659e35404eec557a9--
UTJ}
^QUIT
UTJ}
UTJ}


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iohazard December 30, 2013
Okay so I finally setup an e-mail account other than gmail and tried forwarding mail there and it works fine. I guess it must be something gmail specific. (Still don't know what)
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tvogels January 7, 2015

Thanks a lot! I had the same problem and it was very frustrating.

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