[volunteers] List server problem

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Peter Belew (abcruzww at gmail.com):

> it looks like the list server for SMAUG isn't functioning properly - a
> couple of folks have gotten blank emails from the meeting announcement
> I sent out earlier today.
> 
> :)

Am I correctly guessing that this is a serious problem report, despite
the smilie?


Suggestion:  When you're making such requests for help, you really do
need to include a copy of the posting in question, with full headers.
Otherwise, you're asking a sysadmin to conduct a broad search for
something that's not properly described.

You aren't actually even specifying the posting address you used.  I'm
left to infer that you _probably_ mean abcruzww at gmail.com.  It's a bad
sign when the person you're asking to help you needs to guess what
you're asking about.  You're also not (even) specifying the timestamp,
so again I have to guess the approximate timespan within "earlier
today", and conduct a broader search than if I could just grep for a
timestamp -- all of which would have been unnecessary if you'd just
lobbed a copy of the post.


Anyway:
/var/local/mailman/logs/post shows the most recent (fully processed) post 
from abcruzww at gmail.com being the one on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 3.
This one:  http://lists.svlug.org/archives/smaug/2008q4/001974.html

That same logfile shows other postings after Nov. 3, as recently as
Saturday, Nov. 8.  But nothing after Saturday, which is a little fishy.

/var/log/exim4/mainlog shows the Exim4 MTA handing off a posting from
you to the Smaug mailing list at 6:12PM tonight:

2008-11-10 18:12:35 1Kzijh-0002FT-Km SA: Action: scanned but message
isn't spam: score=-2.3 required=5.0 (scanned in 26/26 secs | Message-Id: 353ac460811101812h6bec0819m1f0d8fbfb780675f at mail.gmail.com). From <abcruzww at gmail.com> (host=rv-ou t-0708.google.com [209.85.198.241]) for smaug at lists.svlug.org
2008-11-10 18:12:35 1Kzijh-0002FT-Km <= abcruzww at gmail.com H=rv-out-0708.google.com [209.85.198.241]:26857 I=[157.22.20.227]:25 P=esmtp S=2751 id=353ac460811101812h6bec0819m1f0d8fbfb780675f at mail.gmail.com T="Meeting tonight at 7" from <abcruzww at gmail.com> for smaug at lists.svlug.org
2008-11-10 18:12:35 cwd=/var/spool/exim4 3 args: /usr/sbin/exim4 -Mc 1Kzijh-0002FT-Km
2008-11-10 18:12:37 1Kzijh-0002FT-Km => smaug <smaug at lists.svlug.org> F=<abcruzw
w at gmail.com> R=mm21_main_director T=mm21_transport S=2801


So, it does seem as if your mail is being properly received by the MTA
and handed off to Mailman (the mailing list manager = MLM), but the
latter has been for some reason choking since Saturday.

Checking to see if Mailman's queue running is running:

# ps auxw | grep qrunner
mailman   1274  0.0  0.3  7192 1896 ?        S    Jun19   0:16 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=RetryRunner:0:1 -s
mailman  12571  0.0  1.1  8836 5776 ?        S    Nov04   2:45 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=VirginRunner:0:1 -s
mailman  24491  0.0  0.4  7084 2232 ?        S    Nov09   0:31 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=ArchRunner:0:1 -s
mailman  30065  0.0  0.4  7172 2392 ?        S    Nov09   0:20 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=NewsRunner:0:1 -s
mailman  30066  0.0  0.6  7228 3364 ?        S    Nov09   0:19 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=CommandRunner:0:1 -s
mailman  30084  0.0  0.9  7916 4964 ?        S    Nov09   0:29 /usr/bin/python /var/local/mailman/bin/qrunner --runner=OutgoingRunner:0:1 -s
root      9285  0.0  0.1  1852  956 pts/0    S    19:43   0:00 grep qrunner
#

So:  Yes.  But, on speculation, let's just try restarting the sucker:

# /etc/init.d/mailman stop
[Wait a while.]
# ps auxw | grep qrunner
root      9294  0.0  0.1  1824  928 pts/0    S    19:45   0:00 grep qrunner
# /etc/init.d/mailman start

# tail -f post

[shows postings slowly spooling out]

OK, that seems to have cleared the logjam.

Thanks for the heads-up.  Please, next time, _do_ send a copy of the
post with fully headers.