Mailman 3 March 2005 - Mailman-Users

Mailman/Exim problem with very slow outgoing mail on one list
by Stephanie March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

I'm hoping someone has some ideas for fixing a problem with very slowwwww outgoing mail delivery for one particular list I host. I'm running Mailman 2.1.5 and Exim 4.40. I host a couple dozen Mailman lists on my Linux server, most are less than 300 members except for one list with about 1,100 members, about 850 set to individual emails and 250 on digest. I've hosted this list (call it ABC list) for almost two years now and up until about a month ago, outgoing mail for ABC list (and all other outgoing mail, list) got processed very quickly, getting delivered to the recipient's server at a rate of about 1,000-1,200 per hour. The ABC list will get posts in several messages, usually two to four per topic and once a month, there's a posting that's 12 to 14 messages. About a month ago, at a time where there were NO updates to anything on my server, hadn't been any for about two weeks prior, suddenly outgoing mail on the ABC list *only* slowed down to a quarter of the usual speed, processing about 300 messages per hour, even if there were no other messages in the Exim queue. The messages get processed by Mailman to Exim at the usual speed, takes about ten minutes for Exim to accept 850 messages and queue them and start delivering them but instead of being sent out 1,000-1,200 per hour, suddenly they stick in Exim, even ones for delivery to local email addresses, delivering only about 300 per hour. All other lists and private mail process at the normal faster levels. If there's outgoing messages from other Mailman lists, those messages will get processed and sent out while the messages for ABC list languish in the Exim queue. (Note: most all of the lists I host, and especially the busier ones, including ABC list, are set in Mailman to VERP all messages, it's been set like that for over a year.) Forcing additional Exim queue runners doesn't do anything but increase the load on my server as it tries to process even more very slow messages. About two weeks ago, one of my users created a new list (call it XYZ list) and directly added about 950 users in one go (she was creating a backup list for Yahoogroup) and she neglected to turn off the notices to the listowner of new members and she didn't turn off the welcome message either so approximately 1,900 messages got sent out immediately. At the same time, there were about 10,000 messages in the Exim queue for ABC list (the 12 part monthly posting), processing at their very slow pace. The individual welcome messages and new members for XYZ list notices flew right on past, the 950+ welcome messages and the new member notices went thru the Exim queue in about 20 minutes with just a handful left waiting on problems at the recipient's server. At first glance I would think this is strictly an Exim problem but since it's affecting a single Mailman list, I keep coming back to something going wrong between the two. I have checked Exim logs and Mailman logs, can't see anything out of place. I've gone thru the Mailman FAQ and also the Exim/Mailman HowTo and tweaked things but still no difference, every other list flies on by while the ABC list plods along slowly. This problem applies to all the outgoing messages on the ABC list, doesn't matter what receiving ISP, they all get treated just a slowly. I've checked that in the logs and watched it in the queue, even messages destined for other users I host will sit and wait. I've watched the individual delivery attempts, when I force delivery of one of the ABC list messages, it'll take at least 30 seconds before Exim even attempts to lookup the recipient's ISP but once it gets to that point, it flies right on thru, speedy as usual. It's that 30-45 second delay as it's pulling up the message (or whatever) that I can't determine the cause. If it was all mail or even all Mailman mail, I'd know it was some problem with Exim or dns (which I checked and changed anyway, didn't make any difference) but it's just this one list, no other lists and other non-list mail is not affected at all. The only thing I can think of that I haven't tried yet is exporting all the list settings and member list (there's no archives thankfully) and deleting the list and re-creating it but I have no idea if that would help...any suggestions, hints, tips, wild ideas, anything at all, is very welcome. -- hth, Stephanie Links blog: http://alice.ttlg.net/links/ Glenfinnan Web Hosting: http://www.glenfinnan.net/ The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery [Wind, Sand, Stars]

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digest options
by Jennifer Stanley March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

hi. i manage several discussion lists hosted by Dreamhost. for subscribers who prefer digests, there are, it appears, few options for controlling or customizing digest delivery. i had a request that digests be sent weekly, but it appears that the frequency is dictated only by the size of the volume. is there any way to (a) make digest delivery calendar based rather than folder-size based? (e.g., sent weekly, daily, or whatever, vs. after the folder reaches 30k or 250k or whatever) and/or (b) is there any way to allow the subscriber to set these options for themselves? thanks, jennifer ps. Dreamhost tech support couldn't help me and recommended that i contact you.

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Re: [Mailman-Users] Moderated group.
by J.R. Constance March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

Yes, I have several other lists on this server that are working, but they are not moderated lists. Emails sent to those lists automatically are sent out to all subscribers. This is the only moderated list where emails sent to the list have to be reviewed and approved before going out to the list members. Mark Sapiro <msapiro(a)value.net> wrote:J.R. Constance wrote: > >The really odd thing is that when I first set this list up it was >working fine. Subscribers would post to the list, a notification >would be sent to the admin that there was a post to be approved, etc. >At some point a month or so ago, it just quit working. I have checked >and rechecked the settings, but can't find anything. Check article 3.14 in the FAQ >Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Do you have other lists that are working. If not, your qrunners may have stopped. -- Mark Sapiro The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan

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Moderated group.
by J.R. Constance March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

Is there any way to set up a list so that every message to the list, whether from members or non-members, has to be approved by the moderator prior to being sent out to the list? I thought I had this working with my list but right now when someone sends a message to the list it just seems to disappear. The admins get no notice that there is a message waiting for approval, and nothing shows up in the queue to be approved. J.R.

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help with mailman on bluehost.com
by Samantha March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

Our webhosting software, www.bluehost.com <http://www.bluehost.com/> offers us mailman. I want to create multiple mailing lists as a way to send out a daily e-newsletter publication to some different subscriber lists. However, I am finding it very confusing to use. Do you have a support Telephone # that I can call to walk me through it? Please let me know at your earliest convenience. Thanks, Samantha Wiratunga Managing Editor Abe's Daily Grant Report 301-634-3155 samantha(a)congressionaldigest.com

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Handling multiple subscriptions with one confirmation
by moto wrench March 30, 2005

March 30, 2005

Hello, I'm hosting several related list using MM 2.15 on Freebsd. I would like to enable members to subscribe to several list with only one confirmation. Currently, I use a html form to collect user registration and subscription information and then send an email with a reply-to header to each list-request address. I'm unfamiliar to mailman but scanning the archives leads me to believe this might be possible. My idea is to create a new subscription address and use the mailman libraries to generate confirmation codes and then subscribe each confirmed email to the owners selected list. Can anyone with MM experience offer some insights on how this should be done? TIA, J

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work at home
by albert ardo March 29, 2005

March 29, 2005

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Re: [Mailman-Users] Transfering mailman lists between servers
by James B. Byrne March 29, 2005

March 29, 2005

Ok. I fixed the errors. The 403 Forbidden was caused by restoring logical links dependent upon a different directory layout than that used by CentOS4 (RHEL4), "/var/mailman/archives/public" vice "/var/lib/mailman/archives/public." The logical links that got tarred from the old host pointed to "<listname> -> /var/mailman/archives/private/<listname>", which is a directory structure that does not exist on the new server, hence the error. Repairing the logical links to "<listname> -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/<listname>" fixed that problem. The problem with mapping the fqdn host to the mailman alias I accomplished by adding the following to the mailman.conf file. # Stolen shamelessly from # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/rewriteguide.html # [NC] No Case matching in regexp RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^inet07\.(.*)\.otherdomain\.tld [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$ RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://mailman.domain.tld/$1 # Uncomment the following line, replacing www.example.com with your # server's name, to redirect queries to /mailman to the listinfo # page (recommended). # [L,R] Last directive to match, Return without condition code. # [R=###] is available as an alternative (### = condition code). RedirectMatch ^/mailman[/]*$ http://mailman.halisp.net/mailman/listinfo [L,R] Thanks for the help. Regards, Jim -- *** e-mail is not a secure channel *** mailto:byrnejb.<token>@harte-lyne.ca James B. Byrne Harte & Lyne Limited vox: +1 905 561 1241 9 Brockley Drive fax: +1 905 561 0757 Hamilton, Ontario <token> = hal Canada L8E 3C3

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Transfering mailman lists between servers
by James B. Byrne March 29, 2005

March 29, 2005

I have read and attempted to follow the instructions given in the FAQ but I am unable to successfully transfer mailman lists between two machines. The source host is running mailman-2.1.5-8, the target host is running mailman-2.1.5-33.rhel4. I first created the lists on the target host in order that any logical or hard links would be set up for the archives. I next shutdown and cleared out the mail services on the source host. I then tarred the source hosts's mailman/archives/private and mailman/lists and transferred these to the target host and restored them into the appropriate directories. Now when I access the web admin screen on the target host I am told that there are no lists configured at all. But, if I try and add one of the lists that I transferred then I am told that it already exists. What piece of configuration data am I missing and how do I provide it? Regards, Jim -- *** e-mail is not a secure channel *** mailto:byrnejb.<token>@harte-lyne.ca James B. Byrne Harte & Lyne Limited vox: +1 905 561 1241 9 Brockley Drive fax: +1 905 561 0757 Hamilton, Ontario <token> = hal Canada L8E 3C3

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Unable to subscribe.
by Matthew A. Marshall March 29, 2005

March 29, 2005

Hello, I'm running mailman v2.1.5. When I attempt to subscribe to a list via the web gui. I receive the email I need to confirm. I reply to the email. The email is received by my mailman server. I see it in the maillog. However, after that nothing happens. I am not added to the list nor a message stating that I have sucessfully subscribed. Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks, --Matt

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