[Mailman-Users] All messages discarded, no reason

Milos Prudek prudek at bvx.cz
Sat Nov 8 18:26:40 CET 2008


> Also, not to pick on you specifically because you certainly aren't
> unique in this, but I wonder why people choose to follow 3rd party
> installation instructions about which we know nothing, but come here
> for help when they have problems.

Good point. It did not occur to me to try asking the Ubuntu howto author. 
Often such person may have moved on and has forgotten how he/she did it, or 
his/her experience may be limited to a specific successfull installation. It 
is also very personal to ask someone for advice. It seems safer to ask a pool 
of users who are active members and are likely to have current knowledge. 

> The message is being received, processed and delivered. I am guessing
> that at least one of the recipients of the message loops back to
> Mailman because one of the list members is a list address or something

No list member is the mailing list itself.

> is not properly set up with postfix-to-mailman.py. This message is
> then discarded by Mailman because of the X-BeenThere: header

I looked at the Postfix logs for one mail sent by myself to testing mailing 
list t at z.docestiny.cz. I removed the SpamAssassin processing lines because 
they are hopefully irrelevant.

Nov  8 17:41:05 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: 87A31CBA8A: 
from=<prudek at bvx.cz>, size=1416, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Nov  8 17:41:05 milos-desktop spamd[8350]: prefork: child states: II
Nov  8 17:41:05 milos-desktop postfix/pipe[3751]: 87A31CBA8A: 
to=<t at z.docestiny.cz>, relay=mailman, delay=0.22, delays=0.01/0/0/0.21, 
dsn=2.0.0, status=se
nt (delivered via mailman service)
Nov  8 17:41:05 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: 87A31CBA8A: removed

Now onto /var/log/smtp:

Nov 08 17:41:07 2008 (17699) <200811081741.00552.prudek at bvx.cz> smtp to t for 
3 recips, completed in 0.010 seconds

And at the same time, 17:41:07, at /var/log/mail.info:

Nov  8 17:41:07 milos-desktop postfix/smtpd[3532]: 64731CBA97: 
client=localhost[127.0.0.1]
Nov  8 17:41:07 milos-desktop postfix/cleanup[3612]: 64731CBA97: 
message-id=<200811081741.00552.prudek at bvx.cz>
Nov  8 17:41:07 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: 64731CBA97: 
from=<t-bounces at z.docestiny.cz>, size=2272, nrcpt=3 (queue active)
Nov  8 17:41:07 milos-desktop postfix/smtpd[3532]: disconnect from 
localhost[127.0.0.1]

The nrcpts=3 is probably the number of recipients. This is exactly OK. This 
mailing list has got 3 members.

Some SpamAssassing processing follows. And then...

Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/pickup[2357]: D2FC5CBA73: uid=500 
from=<t-bounces at z.docestiny.cz>
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/cleanup[3612]: D2FC5CBA73: 
message-id=<200811081741.00552.prudek at bvx.cz>
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/pipe[3613]: 64731CBA97: 
to=<prudek at bvx.cz>, relay=spamchk, delay=4.5, delays=0.01/0/0/4.4, dsn=2.0.0, 
status=sent (delivered via spamchk service)
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/pipe[3613]: 64731CBA97: 
to=<member1 at example.com>, relay=spamchk, delay=4.5, delays=0.01/0/0/4.4, 
dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via spamchk service)
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/pipe[3613]: 64731CBA97: 
to=<member2 at example.com>, relay=spamchk, delay=4.5, delays=0.01/0/0/4.4, 
dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via spamchk service)

The last three lines look like correct distribution by Mailman to the three 
members via SpamAssassin... but none of the list members prudek at bvx.cz, 
member1 at example.com, member2 at example.com receive any emails... and then....

Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: 64731CBA97: removed
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: D2FC5CBA73: 
from=<t-bounces at z.docestiny.cz>, size=2381, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Nov  8 17:41:11 milos-desktop spamd[8350]: prefork: child states: II
Nov  8 17:41:12 milos-desktop postfix/pipe[3751]: D2FC5CBA73: 
to=<t at z.docestiny.cz>, relay=mailman, delay=0.24, delays=0.01/0/0/0.23, 
dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via mailman service)
Nov  8 17:41:12 milos-desktop postfix/qmgr[19655]: D2FC5CBA73: removed

Is this suspicious? t-bounces at z.docestiny.cz is sending email to 
t at z.docestiny.cz (the list itself).... is this a loop? What may be causing 
it? I triple-checked that the list address t at z.docestiny.cz IS NOT among list 
members...

There is NO MORE traffic from mailman in /var/log/mail.info. And precisely at 
the same time, 17:41:12, the following appears in /var/log/mailman/vette:
Nov 08 17:41:12 2008 (17697) Message discarded, msgid: 
<200811081741.00552.prudek at bvx.cz>

-- 
Milos Prudek


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