Is Mail.app one of the "erratic" behavior apps with a reset system clock?

Question

I am hoping someone can help with a fine detail of mail.app (v2.1.3) behavior.
I had an incident where an iMac sent out 200+ smtp hits a minute and was tossed of the network for presumed zombie spaming.
I think I have actually tracked the problem to an unfortunate conjunction of circumstances that is actually innocent (if still annoying)
Let me set up the story:
1. This is a common use computer, so Mail is not configured (except that it is --I'll get to that in a moment) and
2. Safari will invoke Mail when you click on an "email link"
Mostly everyone just quits mail if they goof and click an email link.
BUT some time ago at least one person invoked Mail and composed a message. This message, naturally, remained in the outbox ever since. That person learned that they can't send email that way, so ever since they just cmd-Q Mail.
BUT Before this person learned, they walked through the mail-config and told mail to try hitting smtp.mac.com:"nonExistantUser".
So that covers the lead-up. Two days ago, mail was invoked via a Safari link, BUT it wasn't quit, it was sent to the background.
Where it undoubtedly tried to send the outbox repeatedly until it was kicked off the network.
Here is what I don't understand:
Under this scenario of a mis-configured .mac address, will mail repeatedly try and fail to smtp at the maximum possible rate?
OR
Is the one other factor I am about to describe responsible?
The one other factor:
The clock battery is dead and there was a power failure at 4am that day.
The system clock reset to 1969.
Of course, nobody reset it.
Is mail.app one of the apps that the finder message warns "may behave erratically"?
(a GROSS simplification) does it have a bit of code like:
1 check time-of-last-send-mail-attempt
check newest-item-in-outbox
if newest-item more recent then last-send-attempt
do send-mail and record time-of-last-send-mail-attempt
and go to 1
else wait X minutes and go to 1
which, if the clock was mis-set to 1969 would always record a last-send-attempt prior to anything in the outbox and trigger a send loop.
Does anyone know if either Mail is tenacious about sending to a bad .mac address, or gets ridiculous under this circumstance for bad-clock-set?
Marc

Answer 1

I am hoping someone can help with a fine detail of mail.app (v2.1.3) behavior.
I had an incident where an iMac sent out 200+ smtp hits a minute and was tossed of the network for presumed zombie spaming.
I think I have actually tracked the problem to an unfortunate conjunction of circumstances that is actually innocent (if still annoying)
Let me set up the story:
1. This is a common use computer, so Mail is not configured (except that it is --I'll get to that in a moment) and
2. Safari will invoke Mail when you click on an "email link"
Mostly everyone just quits mail if they goof and click an email link.
BUT some time ago at least one person invoked Mail and composed a message. This message, naturally, remained in the outbox ever since. That person learned that they can't send email that way, so ever since they just cmd-Q Mail.
BUT Before this person learned, they walked through the mail-config and told mail to try hitting smtp.mac.com:"nonExistantUser".
So that covers the lead-up. Two days ago, mail was invoked via a Safari link, BUT it wasn't quit, it was sent to the background.
Where it undoubtedly tried to send the outbox repeatedly until it was kicked off the network.
Here is what I don't understand:
Under this scenario of a mis-configured .mac address, will mail repeatedly try and fail to smtp at the maximum possible rate?
OR
Is the one other factor I am about to describe responsible?
The one other factor:
The clock battery is dead and there was a power failure at 4am that day.
The system clock reset to 1969.
Of course, nobody reset it.
Is mail.app one of the apps that the finder message warns "may behave erratically"?
(a GROSS simplification) does it have a bit of code like:
1 check time-of-last-send-mail-attempt
check newest-item-in-outbox
if newest-item more recent then last-send-attempt
do send-mail and record time-of-last-send-mail-attempt
and go to 1
else wait X minutes and go to 1
which, if the clock was mis-set to 1969 would always record a last-send-attempt prior to anything in the outbox and trigger a send loop.
Does anyone know if either Mail is tenacious about sending to a bad .mac address, or gets ridiculous under this circumstance for bad-clock-set?
Marc