[Mailman-Users] Thank you! And a suggestion/feature request?

[Mark Sapiro]

Perry M Lynch wrote:
>
>To answer your questions: 
>1. No, I don't have proof positive that a buffer overrun was the cause of my troubles, but it seems to fit the situation too well to not be. 


Python does not allocate fixed buffers for things, so a buffer overrun
is not a likely scenario.


>What I didn't realize when I originally posted my call for help is that it also had a fairly large image attached as well. Between the formatting, the file, and the CC's I'm relatively sure that it was sufficient to force the overrun. I will ask the admin for the logs, and forward them on to you privately, if that's OK. If we've uncovered a bug, I definitely want to help improve things!


I am definitely interested in seeing the logs and would appreciate your
forwarding them to me if that is possible.

What happened in your case is definitely atypical. The usual thing that
happens when messages are too large to handle properly is that the
underlying Python support throws a MemoryError exception and depending
on exactly where this happens, the message might be lost or moved to
the shunt queue.

If in fact, it was the size or any other characteristic of the message
that caused Mailman to go berserk and accept a message that should
have been held and start sending duplicates, I definitely want to try
to understand what happened and fix it.


<snip>

>Now for the suggestion/feature request(s):
>1 - would it be possible to add a "show all list members" view, and sort them by their status in each column? Actually, just being able to sort any given letter by their various status settings would be tremendous - all no mails, all no duplicates, etc in a row.

See 2.

>2 - What would be an incredibly powerful tool to the non-technical list admin would be the ability to download a text file of listmembers and their status settings. just a simple txt file, showing name, email address, and their basic digest/no mail/ moderated/plain text settings would be a wonderful thing. I'd be thrilled if just the name and email address would be available this way!


See
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.062.htp>
for a link to a python script that you can run on your work station
(after installing python <http://www.python.org/>) to screen scrape
the web admin interface and produce a CSV file of members and settings.

I will consider adding this feature as a direct export in some future
Mailman (2.2 or later).

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