null "Clean Header" multi-times gags sendmail

[Jeff A. Earickson]

Julian,
   I know, I know.  My user community complained "what is this found to
be clean clutter in my email messages?" after I started using mailscanner
this Spring.  So my quick fix was to null out the clean header message.
A big chunk of my community uses Eudora, which shows the X-MailScanner
message at the top as part of the mail message (Outlook doesn't as I
remember, Pine doesn't either).  At least the line "X-MailScanner:"
tells *me* that mailscanner touched the message.

Things worked fine until this week, when I went from sendmail 8.11.6 to
8.12.5, and went from mailscanner 3.21.1 to 3.22.7.  Then I started
noticing this corner-case problem for stuff that goes thru our server
twice.  Sheesh, listen to user complaints and open up a can 'o worms.
I don't know if you consider this a mailscanner bug or misuse on my
part, but it did choke sendmail.

** Jeff A. Earickson, Ph.D                         PHONE: 207-872-3659
** Senior UNIX Sysadmin, Information Technology    EMAIL: jaearick at colby.edu
** Colby College, 4214 Mayflower Hill,               FAX: 207-872-3076
** Waterville ME, 04901-8842
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Julian Field wrote:

> Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:23:43 +0100
> From: Julian Field <mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
> Reply-To: MailScanner mailing list <MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: null "Clean Header" multi-times gags sendmail
>
> I've never know anyone not want to tell their users that a message is clean.
> If you don't mark it as clean, how is the recipient supposed to know
> whether it has been scanned or not?
> Setting this configuration option to nothing seems a mite strange to me...
>
> At 14:39 26/07/2002, you wrote:
> >Julian,
> >
> >Setup:
> >------
> >Solaris 8, sendmail 8.12.5, mailscanner 3.22-7, Sophos, spamassassin
> >
> >MailScanner Config Setting that triggers the problem:
> >-----------------------------------------------------
> >Changing the mailscanner.conf line
> >    Clean Header       = Found to be clean
> >to just be
> >    Clean Header       =
> >ie, nothing after the equals sign.  Putting something after the
> >equals sign fixes the problem, but there's a bug here.
> >
> >The Problem:
> >------------
> >Running a piece of email thru mailscanner multiple times
> >with a blank "clean header" setup causes sendmail to give the following
> >syslog complaints:
> >
> >SYSERR(root): readqf: ./qf.....: incomplete queue file read
> >
> >Any piece of email in /var/spool/mqueue generating this complaint will
> >not be delivered by sendmail, but just sit there -- stuck.
> >
> >Analysis:
> >---------
> >I spent some time staring at the qf files for multi-scanned messages
> >that ended up in /var/spool/mqueue, for both messages with a blank and
> >nonblank "Clean Header" settings.  For a blank "Clean Header" line,
> >the bottom of the qf file looked like:
> >
> >H??X-MailScanner: , .
> >
> >For a qf file with a nonblank "Clean Header = ftbc" line, the bottom of the
> >file looked like:
> >
> >H??X-MailScanner: ftbc, ftbc
> >.
> >
> >Note the placement of the period, which signifies to sendmail where the
> >end of the qf file is supposed to be.  For the blank header, it does not
> >end up by itself as the last line, hence sendmail complains that the queue
> >file is incomplete.  I found that I could unjam the problem qf files in
> >my queue by editing them and sticking a period at the bottom, then
> >rerunning the queue on that message by hand to get it delivered.  And
> >of course I can chase this problem away by making sure that "Clean
> >Header" is not empty.  But this looks like a mailscanner bug -- it puts
> >the final period in the wrong place for multi-scanned messages and an
> >empty "clean headers" setting.
> >
> >** Jeff A. Earickson, Ph.D                         PHONE: 207-872-3659
> >** Senior UNIX Sysadmin, Information Technology    EMAIL: jaearick at colby.edu
> >** Colby College, 4214 Mayflower Hill,               FAX: 207-872-3076
> >** Waterville ME, 04901-8842
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
> Julian Field                Teaching Systems Manager
> jkf at ecs.soton.ac.uk         Dept. of Electronics & Computer Science
> Tel. 023 8059 2817          University of Southampton
>                              Southampton SO17 1BJ
>