Rails - Aug 2006 - ActionMailer cannot use SMTP for email delivery...

RoR aficionados,

I''ve configured ActionMailer for SMTP delivery of emails, and have 
configured "config/environment.rb" accordingly, including the address
of
our (external, but fully operational - checked and double-checked :-) 
SMTP server.

Sending out emails from my Windows development laptop works without a 
hitch, but on a Linux staging server using the exact same source code 
with the exact same config files it doesn''t work;  the symptoms are as 
follows...

If I put the name of the SMTP server in "config/environment.rb" I get 
the following SocketError on the Linux box:

    getaddrinfo: Temporary failure in name resolution
    /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
    ...

If I put the SMTP''s IP address in "config/environment.rb"
instead of
it''s name, it doesn''t work either, but this time with a
Errno::EACCES
instead of the SocketError (again on the Linux box):

     Permission denied - socket(2)
     /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
     ...

Which is very strange, because if I run the following snippets on the 
same Linux box, I don''t get any errors whatsoever:

      ruby -rsocket -e ''p Socket.getaddrinfo("NAME_OF_SMTP",
"smtp")''
      ruby -rsocket -e ''p Socket.getaddrinfo("IP_OF_SMTP",
"smtp")''

So it doesn''t appear to be a firewall, proxy or other configuration 
issue on the box that''s causing the problem.

Also, a small Ruby program that invokes "TCPsocket.new" on port 25 of 
the SMTP server works correctly on the Linux box, and another small Ruby 
program that invokes "Net::SMTP.start" directly (ie. outside of Rails)
to deliver an email via the same SMTP server correctly delivers the 
email from that Linux box... it''s just Rails that seems to be unable to
deliver the email via SMTP.

So it doesn''t appear to be a Rails configuration issue (as the config 
works on my Windows laptop) but at the same time it also doesn''t appear
to be a configuration issue of the Linux box (as Ruby outside of Rails 
can correctly deliver email via SMTP) ????

I''ve gone through the stacktrace (attached below) with a fine comb, and
"TCPsocket.new" and "Net::SMTP.start" seem to be the most
relevant
things to check (which I''ve successfully done, as mentioned above).

An earlier post on this mailing list seems to describe the same (or - at 
least - sufficiently similar) issue:

http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-January/013967.html

but it appears no-one ever posted a follow-up.

Many, many thanks in advance for any help (fix, further pointers) you 
can offer.

Peter Vandenberk

PS - full Rails stacktrace (Rails 1.1.6, ActionMailer 1.2.5)

/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `old_open''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `old_open''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:393:in `do_start''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:378:in `start''
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:316:in `start''
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:511:in 
`perform_delivery_smtp''
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:397:in 
`deliver!''
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:322:in 
`deliver''

For future reference, in case other people run into the same issue: as 
it turns out, the SMTP problem I reported earlier was caused by the fact 
that I was running my Rails application via Apache/CGI on a SELinux 
box... the default SELinux policy disallows HTTPD scripts/modules from 
connecting to the network, hence the error messages I was getting:  SMTP 
from WebRICK, "script/runner" etc. was working, but was failing from
Apache.

Changing the "Allow HTTP scripts and modules to connect to the
network"
setting in the SELinux policy solved the SMTP problem I was experiencing 
in my Rails app.

Doing so probably opened up a whole can of security issues, but at least 
email is now working!  :-)  Luckily the CGI thing is just a temporary 
setup.... phew!

FYI,

Peter

Peter Vandenberk wrote:
> RoR aficionados,
> 
> I''ve configured ActionMailer for SMTP delivery of emails, and have
> configured "config/environment.rb" accordingly, including the
address of
> our (external, but fully operational - checked and double-checked :-) 
> SMTP server.
> 
> Sending out emails from my Windows development laptop works without a 
> hitch, but on a Linux staging server using the exact same source code 
> with the exact same config files it doesn''t work;  the symptoms
are as
> follows...
> 
> If I put the name of the SMTP server in "config/environment.rb" I
get
> the following SocketError on the Linux box:
> 
>    getaddrinfo: Temporary failure in name resolution
>    /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
>    ...
> 
> If I put the SMTP''s IP address in
"config/environment.rb" instead of
> it''s name, it doesn''t work either, but this time with a
Errno::EACCES
> instead of the SocketError (again on the Linux box):
> 
>     Permission denied - socket(2)
>     /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
>     ...
> 
> Which is very strange, because if I run the following snippets on the 
> same Linux box, I don''t get any errors whatsoever:
> 
>      ruby -rsocket -e ''p
Socket.getaddrinfo("NAME_OF_SMTP", "smtp")''
>      ruby -rsocket -e ''p
Socket.getaddrinfo("IP_OF_SMTP", "smtp")''
> 
> So it doesn''t appear to be a firewall, proxy or other
configuration
> issue on the box that''s causing the problem.
> 
> Also, a small Ruby program that invokes "TCPsocket.new" on port
25 of
> the SMTP server works correctly on the Linux box, and another small Ruby 
> program that invokes "Net::SMTP.start" directly (ie. outside of
Rails)
> to deliver an email via the same SMTP server correctly delivers the 
> email from that Linux box... it''s just Rails that seems to be
unable to
> deliver the email via SMTP.
> 
> So it doesn''t appear to be a Rails configuration issue (as the
config
> works on my Windows laptop) but at the same time it also doesn''t
appear
> to be a configuration issue of the Linux box (as Ruby outside of Rails 
> can correctly deliver email via SMTP) ????
> 
> I''ve gone through the stacktrace (attached below) with a fine
comb, and
> "TCPsocket.new" and "Net::SMTP.start" seem to be the
most relevant
> things to check (which I''ve successfully done, as mentioned
above).
> 
> An earlier post on this mailing list seems to describe the same (or - at 
> least - sufficiently similar) issue:
> 
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-January/013967.html
> 
> but it appears no-one ever posted a follow-up.
> 
> Many, many thanks in advance for any help (fix, further pointers) you 
> can offer.
> 
> Peter Vandenberk
> 
> PS - full Rails stacktrace (Rails 1.1.6, ActionMailer 1.2.5)
> 
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `initialize''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `old_open''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:206:in `old_open''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:393:in `do_start''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:378:in `start''
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/smtp.rb:316:in `start''
>
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:511:in
> `perform_delivery_smtp''
>
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:397:in
> `deliver!''
>
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionmailer-1.2.5/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:322:in
> `deliver''
> 
>