Orphaned, undelivered files in mqueue.in

[Remco Barendse]

Oops! Correct that, I have checked my logs and it started on January 4th
on 23:59 up untill now.

I didn't really change anything in the config/setup, only yesterday I
upgraded to 4.11 and started tweaking some rulesets.
The strange thing is that these SIGHUPS are logged *exactly* every 5
minutes, usually no more than 2 seconds off!

Hmmmm, I haven't seen any SIGHUPS now for more than 15 minutes. Because
the log mentions MailScanner *child* I raised my number of Max Children =
setting in the MailScanner.conf file. My setting was 2, I changed it back
to 5 again (I don't need 5 child processes running on a home server,
together with SpamAssassin they are just munching up huge amounts of
mem/cpu in case several messages arrive at the same time).

Is there an internal check in MailScanner that checks on the child
processes that may be bugged or hard coded for 5 child processes and kills
the lot off if there's only 2 instances of MS running?

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Remco Barendse wrote:

> The thought crossed my mind, and it may not even be unlikely. I think I
> found the cause of the problem. The time stamp of the orphaned files is
> about the same as these messages in the maillog:
> Jan  9 21:20:15 raveon MailScanner[30971]: MailScanner child caught a
> SIGHUP
> Jan  9 21:20:15 raveon MailScanner[30946]: MailScanner child caught a
> SIGHUP
> Jan  9 21:20:25 raveon sendmail[31137]: alias database /etc/aliases
> rebuilt by root
> Jan  9 21:20:25 raveon sendmail[31137]: /etc/aliases: 66 aliases, longest
> 10 bytes, 658 bytes total
> Jan  9 21:20:25 raveon sendmail[31146]: starting daemon (8.12.5): SMTP
> Jan  9 21:20:25 raveon sendmail[31151]: starting daemon (8.12.5):
> queueing at 00:15:00
> Jan  9 21:20:26 raveon MailScanner[31162]: MailScanner
> Jan  9 21:20:27 raveon MailScanner[31162]: MailScanner E-Mail Virus
> Scanner version 4.11-1 starting...
> Jan  9 21:20:28 raveon MailScanner[31162]: Using locktype = flock
>
> But.... no reference to receiving any e-mail. I think sendmail is in the
> process of receiving the e-mail, which is not finished, hence no entry in
> the maillog and then MailScanner kills and restarts sendmail??
>
> Or does the sighup mean that something has crashed? I seem to have an
> awful lot of those :(
>
> Every 5 minutes!!!!
>
> If the sender's connection isn't all that fast it is very well possible
> that the mail transfer indeed gets killed before transmission is
> completed.
>
> I never had this SIGHUP problem with 4.10?
>
> On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Julian Field wrote:
>
> > It is possible that you merely got them for non-MailScanner related
> > problems, such as an SMTP client getting cut off half way through sending a
> > message. Sorry if that sounds like I'm passing the buck...
> >
> > At 17:17 09/01/2003, you wrote:
> > >This was the first thing I have checked. I took different parts of the
> > >numbers of these df files and grepped the maillog for it. Strangely enough
> > >I cannot find them. Also when browsing through the maillog and looking
> > >around the same date/time as these orphaned files in some cases there
> > >isn't any message whatsoever of mail being delivered / received.
> > >
> > >I have about 10 orphaned files in the mqueue.in, none in the outdir and
> > >they are all from yesterday and this morning. I know for sure that I
> > >didn't restart MailScanner last night or this morning. It's hardly
> > >possible that MailScanner would restart itself at exactly the same time as
> > >these 10 e-mails in 1,5 day? (This is a very low volume home server).
> > >
> > >On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Julian Field wrote:
> > >
> > > > At 16:08 09/01/2003, you wrote:
> > > > >Ever since I upgraded to MailScanner 4.11-1 yesterday I have several
> > > > >orphaned files that are piling up in mqueue.in
> > > > >
> > > > >The only files sitting there are the df files, without any other files.
> > > > >Also these messages have never been delivered to the intended recipient.
> > > > >
> > > > >Any ideas??
> > > > >
> > > > >Can I still get these df files delivered or extract them to make them
> > > > >readable?
> > > >
> > > > Check both your /var/spool/mqueue and your maillog to see if the message
> > > > ids have already been delivered (or at least placed in the outgoing queue).
> > > >
> > > > I thought I had fixed this in 4.11, but obviously not well enough.
> > > >
> > > > Do the times on the files correspond to times when you have done a
> > > > MailScanner "reload" or "restart"?
> > > > --
> > > > Julian Field
> > > > www.MailScanner.info
> > > > MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >--
> > >This message has been scanned for viruses and
> > >dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> > >believed to be clean.
> >
> > --
> > Julian Field
> > www.MailScanner.info
> > MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>


--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.