NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/unix/admin/4784

Text File | 1992-08-30 | 1.6 KB | 35 lines

Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sunic!aun.uninett.no!ugle.unit.no!Steinar.Haug
From: [e-mail] (Steinar Haug)
Subject: Re: What is the biggest file sendmail can handle?
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of Sun, 30 Aug 1992 02:37:33 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (NetNews Administrator)
Organization: SINTEF DELAB, Trondheim, Norway.
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: 30 Aug 92 13:19:30
Lines: 22

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>     What is the largest file one can send using the sendmail?  Does
> it only depend on the size of the spooling file system? How about the
> transport agent, does it care? I have sent files as big as 2Mb.

The answer, as in so many other cases is: "It depends."

Of course it depends on the size of the file system used for the mail spool.
But more often you'll bump into message size limits (like 64 KB, 100 KB or
maybe 1 MB) enforced by the systems that your message is relayed through.
These limits are normally much lower than the size of the file system used
for the mail spool, for good reason (imagine a relaying system trying to
queue up ten messages each the size of the spool file system...)

The bottom line is: If you're sending a message which travels through more
than a few hops, you cannot really *depend* on more than 64 KByte or so per
message.

Steinar Haug, system/networks administrator & Uninett Postmaster
SINTEF DELAB, University of Trondheim, NORWAY
Email: [e-mail],
    [e-mail], [e-mail]