Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 15:31:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] WSFA list problems, fixed
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Late last night Ron Kean emailed me that his messages didn't seem
to be appearing on the list.  (That's why he sent one twice.)  I
confirmed that I had received his messages, so the problem must be
at his end.

Or was it?

"kfl at KeithLynch.net" is not actually subscribed to the list.  I read
the list by looking at the raw log file which accumulates on Panix.  I
also use that file (which I preserve forever) to generate the online
archives.

However, mostly as a backup in case Panix is destroyed, I am
subscribed via an old guest account at MIT.  This is meant to ensure
that any message which goes to the list will be instantly backed up in
both New York and Massachusetts.  I seldom actually look at the MIT
account, which is mostly overrun with spam anyhow.

But I did so this afternoon, and saw that 133 messages had been
received this month (after weeding out the spam), though 139 were in
the log file on Panix.  I soon located the missing five.  One from
the 15th, and four from last night and today.

I then enabled maximum procmail debugging logfiles, and sent a message
to the list myself.  Not a message saying "testing, testing," since
those are annoying, but a reply I'd been meaning to make to Ted,
about microwaves.  Sure enough, it promptly appeared in the log, but
did not show up at MIT.

So I looked carefully at the debugging logfiles, which keep close
track of where everything goes, consuming vast amounts of disk space
in the process.  I soon found the sendmail queue files where those
six unprocessed messages were hiding.  After studying the sendmail
documentation for a while, I did

  sendmail -q -O QueueDirectory=/users/kfl/wsfa/list

at 3 pm.  This caused all the right things to happen.  The missing
messages promptly appeared at MIT (and presumably everywhere else),
and the queue files disappeared.  (Of course I had taken the
precaution of backing them up first.)

I don't know why those six messages got stuck.  Possibly it had
something to Panix being inundated by vast numbers of gigantic
"M*crosoft S*curity Upd*te" worms via email.  Some people are
receiving over a hundred of them per hour, each about 200k in size.

(I put in the asterisks in case some of you are filtering all email
containing that phrase.)

I'll keep an eye on things, to make sure that if it happens again no
messages are delayed by more than a day.
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
I always welcome replies to my e-mail, postings, and web pages, but
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