[Mailman-Users] sending email step

[Paul Tomblin]

Quoting Roberto Ullfig (rullfig at uchicago.edu):
> 
> How does mailman actually send the messages to the users on a
> list? Does it call sendmail in parallel or serial? Is there a
> pause between each message getting sent or does it try to use
> all of a system's resources? We think that some large lists are
> bringing our system down to its knees.

You can configure how many sendmail processes it spawns per message, and it
makes those connections in parallel.  However, each sendmail process will
process its list serially.  If you find large lists are bogging your system
down in terms of flooding the network, you might want to make it fewer
connections so that it only works on one destination per message at a time.
However, if it's a CPU thing, you might want to look into raising or lowering
that number, OR you might want to look into a different MTA.  I switched to
postfix and it's tons faster than sendmail.  I've heard good things about exim
and qmail - although the author of qmail is a prick and you don't want to deal
with him if you can avoid it.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, not speaking for anybody.
"If you would like a transcript of this program, sit next to your radio with a
pencil and paper and write really fast." - The WRVO Playhouse.