[Mailman-Users] shunt dir and "Uncaught runner exception"

[Charles Sprickman]

Hello,

Please bear with me as I try and get my Mailman skills in order, 
previously I was just babysitting this thing, but now I'm trying to dig in 
and make sure everything is actually working as it should be.

While exploring the "qfiles" directories, I found that "shunt" had about 
47MB of ".pck" files in it.  The FAQ entry I found recommended running 
"unshunt", so I did.  Not a good idea, I found.  Apparently this requeued 
some very old messages, leading to a number of complaints from 
long-unsubscribed list members.

Digging around the mail archives today I noticed some similar problems 
related to "Uncaught runner exception" errors.  Those posts seemed to 
point to problems with oddly-formatted messages.  My tracebacks in the 
error log look a bit different.  See [1] and [2] that represent quite a 
jump in time.

I'm also a bit lost at this point as to what the recommended production 
release is.  The website points to 2.1.5 as "stable", but it seems like 
most folks posting here are using a 2.1.6 snapshot.  Which is preferred 
for production use?

I'm also running sendmail basically by default.  I'm not fond of sendmail. 
Since I'm free to change, what is the "recommended" MTA for an older, 
sluggish box?

Thanks,

Charles

References:
[1]

May 12 01:01:22 2005 (76306) SHUNTING: 
1115874080.77584+b3ededd1f304c19064c28c92b0372d3cefb98c5d
May 12 01:20:52 2005 (76306) Uncaught runner exception: [Errno 5] 
Input/output error
May 12 01:20:52 2005 (76306) Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 111, in _oneloop
     self._onefile(msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 167, in _onefile
     keepqueued = self._dispose(mlist, msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/OutgoingRunner.py", line 73, in 
_dispose
     self._func(mlist, msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/SMTPDirect.py", line 180, in 
process    mm_cfg.SMTP_LOG_EVERY_MESSAGE[1], kws=d)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Syslog.py", line 49, in 
write_ex
     logf = self._logfiles[kind] = StampedLogger(kind)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/StampedLogger.py", line 52, in 
__init__

     Logger.__init__(self, category, nofail, immediate)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 49, in 
__init__
     self.__get_f()
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 75, in __get_f
     _logexc(self, e)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Utils.py", line 22, in _logexc
     sys.__stderr__.write('Logging error: %s\n' % logger)
IOError: [Errno 5] Input/output error

[2]

Aug 13 16:00:29 2004 (336) SHUNTING: 
1092240005.3389361+2b0889d711824ccdc73d79ecb14b0073db8831b2
Aug 13 16:00:29 2004 (336) Uncaught runner exception: [Errno 5] 
Input/output error
Aug 13 16:00:29 2004 (336) Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 111, in _oneloop
     self._onefile(msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 167, in _onefile
     keepqueued = self._dispose(mlist, msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/OutgoingRunner.py", line 73, in 
_dispose
     self._func(mlist, msg, msgdata)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/SMTPDirect.py", line 152, in 
process    deliveryfunc(mlist, msg, msgdata, envsender, refused, conn)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/SMTPDirect.py", line 384, in 
bulkdeliver
     syslog('smtp-failure', 'Low level smtp error: %s, msgid: %s', e, 
msgid)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Syslog.py", line 40, in write
     self.write_ex(kind, msg, args, kws)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Syslog.py", line 49, in 
write_ex
     logf = self._logfiles[kind] = StampedLogger(kind)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/StampedLogger.py", line 52, in 
__init__

     Logger.__init__(self, category, nofail, immediate)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 49, in 
__init__
     self.__get_f()
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 75, in __get_f
     _logexc(self, e)
   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Utils.py", line 22, in _logexc
     sys.__stderr__.write('Logging error: %s\n' % logger)
IOError: [Errno 5] Input/output error