Postfix, mailwatch and queue IDs (and of course mailscanner:-)

[Steen, Glenn]

Hi all...

I gather from the gigantic shrug I'm getting here (how else to interpret
... silence:-) that noone has a good handle on how to "improve" the
situation regarding duplicates in sql-logs (and possible quarantine
corruption) when using some such log feature with MS, due to postfix
reusing queue IDs (the quarantine is in danger when using systems like
MailWatch, which will not preserve the queue file inode (number)...
Sure, it's a slim window, but it could happen).

One could of course try to "work around" this in the "logging subsytem"
(MailWatch in my case), but.. I dunno, it feels like it's better to do
closer to the source:-).

Why not ask the postfix people to "fix it"? Well, I'm guessing one will
get even less response (if that's possible:-) from then, and then
probably just a pointer to amavisd-new.

Sure, for MailScanner it's not a central problem, but... Well, my PHB
likes what he can see in MW (that's what sold him on MS...:), and when
he starts to see the duplicates on a more ... regular basis... Suffice
it to say that it gets to be my problem then:-).

Or has this been discussed in depth already? I couldn't find mention of
it in the list archive...

Any feedback would be welcome.

-- Glenn

-----Original Message-----
From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf Of Steen, Glenn
Sent: den 17 november 2004 14:30
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: Postfix, mailwatch and queue IDs (and of course
mailscanner:-)


Grmbl... Autowrap messing up the perfectly fine links....
Here in a "wrap-safe" version:-)

http://sf.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5934318&forum_id=34994

http://sf.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5964404&forum_id=34994

http://sf.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5964780&forum_id=34994

Sorry for that.

-- Glenn
-----Original Message-----
From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf Of Steen, Glenn
Sent: den 17 november 2004 13:55
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Postfix, mailwatch and queue IDs (and of course mailscanner:-)


Hi all,

(this is mainly old news for the followers of the mailwatch-users
list... Just want to clue you all in:-)

As can be seen in the following references to the not-so-threaded view
of the mailwatch-users list (I might have missed some "branch"...):
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5934318&forum_id=
34994

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5964404&forum_id=
34994

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=5964780&forum_id=
34994

... I've run into a rather sticky thing with message logging to database
and postfix/MS.
Executive summary is that postfix can, and will, reuse queue file IDs...
Which can lead to some strangeness in the MailWatch display ("message
details" showing two messages in one rather confusing display, viruses
appearing "clean" etc), and possibly a form of "quarantine corruption"
if the queue inode number isn't preserved.

As is plain in the above conversation(s) I thoroughly aggravated the
problem by separating the spool area from the rest of /var, so perhaps
this issue could be handled with a FAQ saying "don't do that stupid",
but I'd prefer something more slick... somehow making the IDs
bulletproof unique... but I'm unsure if that's even possible.
Any of you MS gurus care to comment?

Yours
-- Glenn

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