tombre@crin.fr (Karl Tombre) (01/25/91)
I use the filter tool provided with the elm package on a Convex C201 running Convex OS (i.e. something between UNIX BSD 4.2 and 4.3 as far as I understand) in the following way : "| /usr/local/bin/filter -o .filter-errors" in my .forward file and the filter-rules in $HOME/.elm/filter-rules Everything works fine except when, occasionnally, **LOCAL** mail is not immediatly delivered by /usr/lib/sendmail because of too high load average. In this case, as usually, sendmail spools the mail in /usr/spool/mqueue and tries to process it later. **BUT** then, the mail never gets filtered : all I get is a .filter-errors file in /usr/spool/mqueue (!!!!) with the following content : filter (paris): Couldn't read user filter rules file! filter (weinh): Couldn't read user filter rules file! filter (wrobel): Couldn't read user filter rules file! filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! Note that these are always local users trying to reach me via mail. I noted this problem only recently, because 1) somebody told me he sent me a mail I never got 2) fortunately, it does not happen that often that our convex is so loaded that sendmail rejects local mail. Does somebody have an explanation and/or a cure for this quite annoying problem (it means in fact that I have lost the corresponding mails, doesn't it ?) Thanks in advance for any help/advise. -- Karl Tombre - INRIA Lorraine / CRIN EMAIL : tombre@loria.crin.fr - POST : BP 239, 54506 VANDOEUVRE CEDEX, France
andrew@stl.stc.co.uk (Andrew Macpherson) (02/06/91)
In the referenced article tombre@crin.fr (Karl Tombre) writes: | In this case, as usually, sendmail spools the mail in | /usr/spool/mqueue and tries to process it later. **BUT** then, the | mail never gets filtered : all I get is a .filter-errors file in | /usr/spool/mqueue (!!!!) with the following content : | | filter (paris): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | filter (weinh): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | filter (wrobel): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | filter (giese): Couldn't read user filter rules file! | | Note that these are always local users trying to reach me via mail. I | noted this problem only recently, because | | 1) somebody told me he sent me a mail I never got | 2) fortunately, it does not happen that often that our convex is so | loaded that sendmail rejects local mail. | | Does somebody have an explanation and/or a cure for this quite | annoying problem (it means in fact that I have lost the corresponding | mails, doesn't it ?) This is a `well known bug' in older versions of sendmail. The job of delivering through the filter program had been identified, but the userid under which this job was to be run was not stored. A patched version is available, and it may be that the current release incorporates this fix. If you can't find/are not offered one, I may be able to help -- Andrew.Macpherson@stl.stc.co.uk -- PSI%234237100122::Andrew.Macpherson "There is nothing quite so worthwhile as simply messing about in boats"
fsb@vitro.com (Steve Brailsford) (02/06/91)
I setup filter to send uuencoded mail I get to get posted in a special
news group. I do this so I can use nn to decode them easily. Anyway,
what happens is I have smail3 running and I set up the .forward file
to run filter and then in the filter-rules file have a line something like
if (subject "uuencoded") then "exec inews -h -n mailftp"
The problem comes in when this does this with a file that has like
100 parts, the sendmail and filter and all start up about a million
processes and the machine gets deadlocked with too many processes running
and some becomming zombies that never get released. Maybe there is a better
way of doing this. For now I will remove filtering.
--
Steve Brailsford (fsb@vitro.com) _____
Usenet: uupsi!vitro!fsb \/itro Corporation
Compu$erve: 73427,1466 14000 Georgia Ave.
Voice: (301) 231-1481 Silver Spring, MD 20906syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein) (02/07/91)
fsb@vitro.com (Steve Brailsford) writes: >I setup filter to send uuencoded mail I get to get posted in a special >news group. I do this so I can use nn to decode them easily. Anyway, >what happens is I have smail3 running and I set up the .forward file >to run filter and then in the filter-rules file have a line something like >if (subject "uuencoded") then "exec inews -h -n mailftp" >The problem comes in when this does this with a file that has like >100 parts, the sendmail and filter and all start up about a million >processes and the machine gets deadlocked with too many processes running >and some becomming zombies that never get released. Maybe there is a better >way of doing this. For now I will remove filtering. >-- > Steve Brailsford (fsb@vitro.com) _____ > Usenet: uupsi!vitro!fsb \/itro Corporation > Compu$erve: 73427,1466 14000 Georgia Ave. > Voice: (301) 231-1481 Silver Spring, MD 20906 -- ===================================================================== Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator Datacomp Systems, Inc. Voice: (215) 947-9900 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd FAX: (215) 938-0235