[Mailman-Users] Follow-up Weird problem data format error. Commandoutput Mailbox does'nt exist

[carconni]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your advice and I will certainly look into what postfix  
is doing.  In addition, I'll try your suggestion to run postalias to  
see if that corrects the problem.  I've now had 3 more lists become  
undeliverable.  They are all in the /var/mailman/data/alias file, so  
I'll keep digging.

The other thing that troubles me is that I can't figure out why lists  
are loosing members.  When the mailserver bounced tuesday, users  
added several days beforehand disappeared from the list.  The users  
were re-added, only for the problem to reoccur after a server  
restart.  I should point out this isn't occurring with the lists that  
became undeliverable, maybe it's a coincidence, and the 2 are unrelated.

I'll update the list with what I find - and thank you again for  
taking the time help me.

Carconni



On Aug 2, 2007, at 6:40 PM, Mark Sapiro wrote:

> carconni wrote:
>>
>> I've just been updated by more of the users/list admins.  It seems
>> that every-time the mail-server bounces/restarts, configurations are
>> lost.  Members fall off lists, lists stop running, or are no longer
>> recognized by the mail server.  Is there a central DB or something
>> that is rolling back to an earlier version?
>
>
> Could be, but it is pretty clear to me that the problem is with your
> MTA, not with mailman. Since your MTA is Postfix, and delivery is via
> aliases, this can't be a Mailman (other than aliases) issue because
> the mail is being bounced by Postfix because "Recipient address
> rejected: User unknown in local recipient table" which means that
> somehow the aliases for this list are being lost.
>
>
> When the problem occurs, are the aliases still in
> /var/mailman/data/aliases? What is the mod time on
> /var/mailman/data/aliases.db? Are all the list's (working and
> non-working) aliases in /var/mailman/data/aliases and nowhere else (eg
> /etc/postfix/lmail/company.aliases or /etc/aliases)?
>
>
>>> I have spent the better part of 6 hours looking for a reason.  I've
>>> checked permissions, not just with checkperms but manually, step by
>>> step, directory by directory comparing the broken list to a list  
>>> that
>>> is known to be working.
>
>
> Nothing in Mailman is causing this. It is postfix that 'forgets'  
> how to
> deliver to qvc-requests at mail.mailserver.com. Apparently deleting and
> recreating the list fixes the problem because it runs Postfix's
> /usr/sbin/postalias command abd rebuilds /var/mailman/data/aliases.db
> from /var/mailman/data/aliases. Probably just running postalias would
> fix it too without the pain of recreating the list.
>
>
> <stuff not relevant to the issue snipped>
>
>>> I've checked the alias file in /var/mailman/data/aliases:
>>> (Everything looks ok)
>>>
>>> # STANZA START: qvc-requests
>>> # CREATED: Wed Aug  1 09:09:12 2007
>>> qvc-requests:             "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman post  
>>> qvc-
>>> requests"
>>> qvc-requests-admin:       "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman admin  
>>> qvc-
>>> requests"
>>> qvc-requests-bounces:     "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman bounces
>>> qvc-requests"
>>> qvc-requests-confirm:     "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman confirm
>>> qvc-requests"
>>> qvc-requests-join:        "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman join  
>>> qvc-
>>> requests"
>>> qvc-requests-leave:       "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman leave  
>>> qvc-
>>> requests"
>>> qvc-requests-owner:       "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman owner  
>>> qvc-
>>> requests"
>>> qvc-requests-request:     "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman request
>>> qvc-requests"
>>> qvc-requests-subscribe:   "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman  
>>> subscribe
>>> qvc-requests"
>>> qvc-requests-unsubscribe: "|/usr/share/mailman/mail/mailman
>>> unsubscribe qvc-requests"
>>> # STANZA END: qvc-requests
>>>
>>> I've checked locks: - nothing regarding this list there.
>
>
> Mailman locks aren't relevant to this.
>
>
>>> main.cf shows: alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/lmail/
>>> company.aliases,hash:/var/mailman/data/aliases
>
>
> Looks OK to me, but I'm not a postfix guy?
>
>
>>> Where else can I check?
>
> Something is happening when Postfix is restarted that is causing this,
> but I don't know what or why. I'm guessing the
> /var/mailman/data/aliases.db file gets modified somehow using data
> other than that in /var/mailman/data/aliases, but I have no idea how
> this can happen.
>
> But, I can tell you, look to Postfix, not Mailman. Other than
> /var/mailman/data/aliases*, there's nothing in Mailman that's relevant
> to this issue.
>
> -- 
> Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
> San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan
>
>