[Mailman-Users] went live - big mistake - please help

[Mark Sapiro]

xp xp wrote:
> Hello Mark, Could you please let me know how to access smtp-log?


The logs are on the Mailman host. Several 'packaged' Mailman 
installations put them in /var/log/mailman/. The default location for 
GNU Mailman is /usr/local/mailman/logs/.

To access these logs, you need shell or perhaps ftp access to the 
server. If yours is a 'hosted' Mailman, you may not be able to access 
the logs.


> So
> the mailman will bounce if it can't send email to a valid email ID?
> how many attempts will it take before it quits? I saw the email in
> the archives, but I cannot see who got it. Is there a feature where
> mailman can show which users got an email? please help. drb


Mailman delivers mail via SMTP to an MTA, usually running on the same 
host. If an error occurs during SMTP to the MTA, it will be logged in 
Mailman's smtp-failure log. If it is a fatal (5xx status) error, it is 
treated as a hard bounce. If it is retryable (4xx status), Mailman will 
retry at 15 minute intervals for 5 days.

Most errors occurring during SMTP to the outgoing MTA are due to some 
kind of configuration problem between Mailman and the MTA. You have to 
see the log messages or the bounce notices to see what the errors are.

If Mailman and the MTA are configured appropriately, almost all bounces 
are returned by the MTA after acceptance of the original message. In 
this case, retries if any will be done by the MTA. Again, you need to 
see the bounce messages to see why the mail is undeliverable.

In Mailman, set bounce_processing to Yes; set 
bounce_notify_owner_on_disable to Yes, and temporarily at least, set 
bounce_score_threshold to 1.0. Then when mail to a member bounces, the 
member's delivery will be disabled immediately and the list owner will 
receive a notice (assuming it doesn't bounce too) containg the original 
bounce message which will help you see the problem.

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