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Mailman 2.1.12

Hi all,

One email address was mistyped in a list and I receive tons of emails a
day about :
Postfix SMTP server: errors from localhost[127.0.0.1]

I went to Mailman queue and here is the queue contents :

ls -Rlha /var/lib/mailman/qfiles
/var/lib/mailman/qfiles:
total 48K
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 .
drwxrwsr-x 8 list list 4,0K 2010-02-08 21:14 ..
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 17:03 archive
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 bad
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-15 13:36 bounces
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-11 19:22 commands
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 17:03 in
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-08 21:40 news
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 out
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 retry
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-08 21:40 shunt
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 12:00 virgin

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/archive:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 17:03 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/bad:
total 16K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,6K 2010-02-09 12:00
1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2.psv

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/bounces:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-15 13:36 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/commands:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-11 19:22 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/in:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 17:03 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/news:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-08 21:40 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/out:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/retry:
total 180K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
1265961379.78371+f52f95dafd795b376b6f236266a30656762e9312.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
1265962377.1492419+ab429d4da967b4e5d73a49b9ad9c15da63938e4d.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 3,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
1265963302.2198579+e23759d849358c41e5cb65734c68113e03940d53.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 53K 2010-02-17 08:35
1266005255.3434069+05885e1413d12056b100ec76122a9ed15fe52aee.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
1266181576.168088+374f21f5a8cbeb5d1b634327d8e37f145c3aca06.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 74K 2010-02-17 08:35
1266183850.9198849+cae961d9f131124aec881c1aca55e7a2405d9f7c.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,1K 2010-02-17 08:35
1266192566.7376809+2c441fed9eccdede5580771ad81d47a2870c6a66.pck
-rw-rw---- 1 list list 1,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
1266209411.1881809+530cd317167b0a37421ef71f51fd739dbaa4e58f.pck

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/shunt:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-08 21:40 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..

/var/lib/mailman/qfiles/virgin:
total 8,0K
drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-16 12:00 .
drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..


My question is : can I safely manually remove (rm) files from qfiles/bad
and qfiles/retry or is there another way to proceed ?

Thanks in advance for your time.
Nicolas Canonne

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  • Mark Sapiro at Feb 16, 2010 at 10:29 pm ⇧

    me at electronico.nc wrote:
    One email address was mistyped in a list and I receive tons of emails a
    day about :
    Postfix SMTP server: errors from localhost[127.0.0.1]

    I went to Mailman queue and here is the queue contents : [...]
    /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/bad:
    total 16K
    drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 .
    drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,6K 2010-02-09 12:00
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2.psv [...]
    /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/retry:
    total 180K
    drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 .
    drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265961379.78371+f52f95dafd795b376b6f236266a30656762e9312.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265962377.1492419+ab429d4da967b4e5d73a49b9ad9c15da63938e4d.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 3,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265963302.2198579+e23759d849358c41e5cb65734c68113e03940d53.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 53K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266005255.3434069+05885e1413d12056b100ec76122a9ed15fe52aee.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266181576.168088+374f21f5a8cbeb5d1b634327d8e37f145c3aca06.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 74K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266183850.9198849+cae961d9f131124aec881c1aca55e7a2405d9f7c.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,1K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266192566.7376809+2c441fed9eccdede5580771ad81d47a2870c6a66.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 1,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266209411.1881809+530cd317167b0a37421ef71f51fd739dbaa4e58f.pck [...]
    My question is : can I safely manually remove (rm) files from qfiles/bad
    and qfiles/retry or is there another way to proceed ?


    The entry in qfiles/bad is something else. It is either an unparseable
    message (likely spam) or a message that was supposed to be shunted but
    for which shunting failed for some reason. You may be able to see the
    message content with either bin/show_qfiles or bin/dumpdb pointed at
    the file. In any case, there should be an entry in Mailman's error log
    with timestamp "Feb 8 17:00:01" or possibly "2010-02-09 12:00" and
    saying either "Skipping and preserving unparseable message:
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2" or
    "SHUNTING FAILED, preserving original entry:
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2". In the
    latter case, this may be preceded by another exception and traceback,
    but it is more likely the former.

    This message is no longer being processed by Mailman and can be rm'd if
    you wish, although if the cull_bad_shunt cron job is running, the file
    should be automatically removed the first time cull_bad_shunt runs
    after it is 7 days old.

    The messages in qfiles/retry can also just be rm'd. You can see the
    undelivered recipients (probably just the one bad one) by running
    bin/dumpdb against the files. If the message still has valid
    recipients, as well as the invalid one(s), see
    <http://www.msapiro.net/scripts/remove_recips>.

    --
    Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,
    San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
  • Mark Sapiro at Feb 16, 2010 at 11:01 pm ⇧

    Mark Sapiro wrote:
    The entry in qfiles/bad is something else. It is either an unparseable
    message (likely spam) or a message that was supposed to be shunted but
    for which shunting failed for some reason. You may be able to see the
    message content with either bin/show_qfiles or bin/dumpdb pointed at
    the file.

    I neglected to mention, if you try to use bin/dumpdb on the .psv file,
    you will need to specify '-p' to bin/dumpdb.

    Also note that you have an underlying problem here in that Postfix is
    doing domain or address verification during SMTP from Mailman and is
    returning a 4xx (retryable) status for bad addresses. You should
    return a 5xx status. I.e., set

    unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550

    in main.cf


    --
    Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,
    San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
  • Me at Feb 16, 2010 at 11:16 pm ⇧

    On 17/02/2010 09:29, Mark Sapiro wrote:
    me at electronico.nc wrote:
    One email address was mistyped in a list and I receive tons of emails a
    day about :
    Postfix SMTP server: errors from localhost[127.0.0.1]

    I went to Mailman queue and here is the queue contents :
    [...]
    /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/bad:
    total 16K
    drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 .
    drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,6K 2010-02-09 12:00
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2.psv
    [...]
    /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/retry:
    total 180K
    drwxrws--- 2 list list 4,0K 2010-02-17 08:35 .
    drwxrwsr-x 12 list list 4,0K 2010-02-09 12:00 ..
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265961379.78371+f52f95dafd795b376b6f236266a30656762e9312.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 4,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265962377.1492419+ab429d4da967b4e5d73a49b9ad9c15da63938e4d.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 3,8K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1265963302.2198579+e23759d849358c41e5cb65734c68113e03940d53.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 53K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266005255.3434069+05885e1413d12056b100ec76122a9ed15fe52aee.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266181576.168088+374f21f5a8cbeb5d1b634327d8e37f145c3aca06.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 74K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266183850.9198849+cae961d9f131124aec881c1aca55e7a2405d9f7c.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 5,1K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266192566.7376809+2c441fed9eccdede5580771ad81d47a2870c6a66.pck
    -rw-rw---- 1 list list 1,5K 2010-02-17 08:35
    1266209411.1881809+530cd317167b0a37421ef71f51fd739dbaa4e58f.pck [...]
    My question is : can I safely manually remove (rm) files from qfiles/bad
    and qfiles/retry or is there another way to proceed ?

    The entry in qfiles/bad is something else. It is either an unparseable
    message (likely spam) or a message that was supposed to be shunted but
    for which shunting failed for some reason. You may be able to see the
    message content with either bin/show_qfiles or bin/dumpdb pointed at
    the file. In any case, there should be an entry in Mailman's error log
    with timestamp "Feb 8 17:00:01" or possibly "2010-02-09 12:00" and
    saying either "Skipping and preserving unparseable message:
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2" or
    "SHUNTING FAILED, preserving original entry:
    1265677201.538301+ff2998155195d0f6d06604e67777ba8ccfff2cf2". In the
    latter case, this may be preceded by another exception and traceback,
    but it is more likely the former.

    This message is no longer being processed by Mailman and can be rm'd if
    you wish, although if the cull_bad_shunt cron job is running, the file
    should be automatically removed the first time cull_bad_shunt runs
    after it is 7 days old.

    The messages in qfiles/retry can also just be rm'd. You can see the
    undelivered recipients (probably just the one bad one) by running
    bin/dumpdb against the files. If the message still has valid
    recipients, as well as the invalid one(s), see
    <http://www.msapiro.net/scripts/remove_recips>.
    Thanks Mark for your time !
    I have just removed the retry/*.pck files and all is OK (no more errors
    from Postfix).
    Nicolas Canonne

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postedFeb 16, '10 at 9:50p
activeFeb 16, '10 at 11:16p
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