Mailscanner not picking up messages

[Julian Field]

At 14:49 25/02/2003, you wrote:
>Julian can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a MS process reads a
>batch of df/qf files, does all it's work in it's incoming processid
>directory, and when it's down, drops those into the outgoing queue
>folder.  Then it goes back to the mqueue.in and deletes the qf file and
>then df file.  So I think if you kill -9 Mailscanner during it's cleanup
>process, then it doesn't get completed.  If there is a df/qf file from
>that killed scan, then it just gets reprocessed.  If it's just a df file
>without a qf then it's ignores.  If there happens to be a qf left then I
>think it would deliver a blank message since the qf file is mostly the
>header and df is the body.  But I don't see any of these blank messages,
>so I think it deletes all those first and then deletes the df files.
>
>Is this how it works Julian?

You are basically correct. The key thing to remember is "Don't kill -9
MailScanner processes". If it is given a normal kill command it will finish
the clearup before exiting and leave your queues intact. If you kill -9
then I can't clearup at all and therefore half a message may be left in the
mqueue.in. The best way to stop it is using the init.d script which shuts
everything down cleanly. If you kill the main "parent" MailScanner process,
or else kill all the MailScanner processes, use a normal kill command and
then wait 5 - 10 seconds for the clearup to complete before using ps to see
if they have all gone. Don't expect them all to instantly die, they are
trying their best to clearup your system at that point.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Julian Field [mailto:mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 9:29 AM
>To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>Subject: Re: Mailscanner not picking up messages
>
>
>What does
>          cd /var/spool/mqueue.in
>          ls -al
>produce. It will be probably be clear (to me!) from that what is
>happening.
>
>At 14:18 25/02/2003, you wrote:
> >Hi all
> >
> >I have a problem here (still)
> >I have a couple of messages here in my mqueue.in directory
> >I keep on seeing this in my maillog file
> >
> >Feb 25 16:12:42 darkstar MailScanner[12529]: New Batch: Found 61
> >messages waiting Feb 25 16:12:42 darkstar MailScanner[12529]: New
> >Batch: Scanning 1 messages, 5835 bytes
> >Feb 25 16:12:42 darkstar MailScanner[12529]: Virus and Content
>Scanning:
> >Starting
> >Feb 25 16:12:42 darkstar MailScanner[12529]: Uninfected: Delivered 1
>messages
> >
> >It has been going on like this for two or three days now.Why is it not
> >picking them up?
> >When I took my previuos installation live it qued 10 000 messages like
>that
> >and refused to pick them up or deliver them properly.
> >I have switched between distrebutions and perl versions but nothing.
> >
> >Anyone else seen this ?
> >
> >Mozzi
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >This message has been scanned for viruses and
> >dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> >believed to be clean.
> >Mailscanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.
>
>--
>Julian Field
>www.MailScanner.info
>MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support

--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support