[Mailman-Users] Error log messages and troubleshooting possibleslow message sends

[Mark Sapiro]

Robin Walls - McClatchy Interactive wrote:

>I cleaned up a lot of unused scripts, but appear to have missed a step, 
>because the error log file has many entries for the lists that were 
>removed.  Would anyone happen to know what steps are necessary to make 
>the error messages go away? I used the script "rmlist" to delete the lists.
>Nov 11 05:17:48 2007 post(2297): post script, list not found: nao-opinion
>Nov 11 05:17:48 2007 post(2298): post script, list not found: nao-sports
>Nov 11 05:19:55 2007 mailcmd(2367): mailcmd script, list not found: 
>nao-opinion



It appears that your MTA uses manual aliases for Mailman and you didn't
remove the aliases for the deleted lists (If your Mailman installation
is properly configured, rmlist should report what aliases need to be
removed).

In any case, the MTA is still trying to deliver mail to Mailman for the
lists that no longer exist.


>Additionally, we have been receiving complaints that certain list 
>members are not getting emails in a timely fashion.  While it appears to 
>be their email provider or spam filter, Mailman is being blamed.  The 
>person's account is set to receive individual messages, so they are not 
>being held for digest. 
>
>I believe the "post" log shows when the message was received by Mailman; 


No. It actually shows the time that the outgoing post was delivered to
the MTA.


>however I am not finding the log that says when it was sent.  I assumed 
>it would be "smtp", but there is currently no mention of the recent 
>email being sent (I did receive it). Do messages get sent out in batches 
>and then recorded upon completion or leave the server all at once?


Yes. All outgoing mail should be logged in the smtp log. One message is
delivered in chunks of from one to hundreds (depending on various
Mailman settings) of recipients per chunk. After all chunks have been
delivered (or attempted to be delivered) to the outgoing MTA, a single
smtp log entry and a single post log entry is written for that
message, and then the next outgoing message, if any, is processed.


>Thank you for any information you can provide.


Check your MTA logs (maillog ?) as well as the MTA has much more
information about when individual messages were sent on and what
delays may have occurred.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan