[Mailman-Users] Strange bounce removal issue

[Mark Sapiro]

Brian Carpenter wrote:
>
>I have a strange issue affecting a client's mailing list. It seems the
>mailman server is repeatedly removing an e-mail address due to excessive
>bounces. I see this in the subscribe log file:
>
>Mar 22 20:38:04 2009 (26386) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 20:38:04 2009 (26386) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 20:53:06 2009 (24019) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 20:53:06 2009 (24019) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 21:08:08 2009 (29528) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 21:08:08 2009 (29528) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 21:23:10 2009 (1713) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 21:23:10 2009 (1713) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 21:38:11 2009 (5212) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 21:38:11 2009 (5212) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 21:53:13 2009 (7199) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>Mar 22 21:53:13 2009 (7199) listname_list.domain.com: email at verizon.net
>auto-unsubscribed [reason: BYBOUNCE]
>Mar 22 22:08:14 2009 (10748) listname_list.domain.com: deleted
>email at verizon.net; disabled address
>
>These entries actually go on for about 3 days, and seem to occur in the late
>evening/ early morning hours. Since the administrator of the list is
>notified when a member is removed due to bounces, he keeps receiving
>repeated notices regarding the same e-mail address.


First of all, his bounce proccessing is too strict. He has
bounce_score_threshold <= 1 and bounce_you_are_disabled_warnings = 0
so the member is removed on the first bounce.

There also appears to be some kind of SMTP delivery problem causing
intermittent bounces. Check your MTA logs and Mailman's smtp-failure
log to see if you can determine what's happening.

The puzzle is how does the same address keep getting re-subscribed so
it can be unsubscribed again.

One curious thing about the above subscribe log entries: they occur at
15 minute intervals, which is normal for BounceRunner bounce queue
processing, but each one has a different PID. Could it be that
BounceRunner is dying and restarting each time? Check Mailman's error
and qrunner logs. Maybe what I say about settings above isn't it at
all. Maybe there are people at the threshold, and some processing
glitch which prevents the runner from saving the list after the
unsubscribe.
	
-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan