Mailing List Archive: exim: users

connection_max_messages vs. batch_max

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

jeffrey.starin at gmail

Mar 5, 2012, 6:43 PM

Post #1 of 6 (420 views)
Permalink

connection_max_messages vs. batch_max

Total confusion on my part:

Is connection_max_messages and batch_max the same thing but for
different versions of Exim?

I am running Exim version 4.69, and cannot get either of these values to
be set in the exim.conf.

If I input them in the remote_smtp sections then restart and run exim
-bP, no values are output.

I want what that flag offers but can't seem to set it in the exim.conf

Any help much appreciated.

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

nigel at dotdot

Mar 6, 2012, 12:48 AM

Post #2 of 6 (403 views)
Permalink

Re: connection_max_messages vs. batch_max [In reply to]

Jeffrey Starin wrote:
> Is connection_max_messages and batch_max the same thing but for
> different versions of Exim?

No, they are quite different things....

batch_max is the maximum number of *addresses* that are sent in one
transaction - ie for SMTP the maximum number of recipients that a single
SMTP message is sent to (if there are more than that many total
recipients for a single endpoint then additional message copies will be
sent for the additional recipients.

connection_max_messages is the maximum number of *messages* that can be
sent in a single SMTP transaction (and each of those could have up to
batch_max recipient addresses).

> I am running Exim version 4.69, and cannot get either of these values to
> be set in the exim.conf.

You are editing the same config file as exim is looking at?

Nigel.

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

nigel at dotdot

Mar 6, 2012, 5:57 AM

Post #3 of 6 (399 views)
Permalink

Re: connection_max_messages vs. batch_max [In reply to]

[.Please do not take mailing list threads private - it means when someone
with the same question follows the thread it just stops partway. Also I
answer mailing list stuff (including that copying me directly) pretty
much on a whim, so only sending to me rather than the list risks the
thread stopping because I don't feel like answering this one...
Exim-users list copied back in...]

Jeffrey Starin wrote:

> I know it's the correct file because when I attempt to change or input
> the value and then restart, I receive errors. My ISP is telling me that
> these values are "private" -- I've never heard of such a setup.

I suspect they are making things up there.

> Anyway, my ultimate goal is to have all my messages destined, for say,
> Yahoo, go in one connection rather than several connections, and I wish
> to control that value. Is it the connection_max_messages I need to set
> or the batch_max I need to set?

Many distinct messages, then you want to set connection_max_messages to
something higher. However because exim does not run as a centrally
controlled setup, you may still find that messages are independently
routed and sent down different SMTP sessions even to the same
destination. The way to mostly avoid this is to use queue_smtp_domains
to select the domains you wish to to have queued and then batch
delivered when a queue run happens. This does, of course, affect
latency of the system.

The batch_max and connection_max_messages are transport options, so are
added to a transport, giving you something like this

remote_smtp:
driver = smtp
connection_max_messages = 30

Remember the other end in an SMTP transaction is quite at liberty to
decide it wants no more than n messages in a single connection, or have
other limits on the numbers of recipients.

Nigel.

--
[ Nigel Metheringham ------------------------------ nigel [at] dotdot ]
[ Ellipsis Intangible Technologies ]

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

jeffrey.starin at gmail

Mar 6, 2012, 7:09 AM

Post #4 of 6 (399 views)
Permalink

Re: connection_max_messages vs. batch_max [In reply to]

On 3/6/2012 8:57 AM, Nigel Metheringham wrote:
> [.Please do not take mailing list threads private - it means when someone
> with the same question follows the thread it just stops partway. Also I
> answer mailing list stuff (including that copying me directly) pretty
> much on a whim, so only sending to me rather than the list risks the
> thread stopping because I don't feel like answering this one...
> Exim-users list copied back in...]
>
> Jeffrey Starin wrote:
>
>> I know it's the correct file because when I attempt to change or input
>> the value and then restart, I receive errors. My ISP is telling me that
>> these values are "private" -- I've never heard of such a setup.
> I suspect they are making things up there.
>
>> Anyway, my ultimate goal is to have all my messages destined, for say,
>> Yahoo, go in one connection rather than several connections, and I wish
>> to control that value. Is it the connection_max_messages I need to set
>> or the batch_max I need to set?
> Many distinct messages, then you want to set connection_max_messages to
> something higher. However because exim does not run as a centrally
> controlled setup, you may still find that messages are independently
> routed and sent down different SMTP sessions even to the same
> destination. The way to mostly avoid this is to use queue_smtp_domains
> to select the domains you wish to to have queued and then batch
> delivered when a queue run happens. This does, of course, affect
> latency of the system.
>
> The batch_max and connection_max_messages are transport options, so are
> added to a transport, giving you something like this
>
> remote_smtp:
> driver = smtp
> connection_max_messages = 30
>
> Remember the other end in an SMTP transaction is quite at liberty to
> decide it wants no more than n messages in a single connection, or have
> other limits on the numbers of recipients.
>
>
> Nigel.
>
Ah ha! I see. Thank you for the update on that. Actually it's not
many distinct messages it's email campaigning so it's a single message
to many recipients. I don't know what yahoo expects and I've registered
with all the Feedback Loops, etc., they haven't been delaying my email
yet. But occasionally I do receive 421 messages. I just wish I could
reduce bandwidth by sending X number of messages in one connection. I'm
on a VPS and do not want to hog all the resources.

Thank you.

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

nigel at dotdot

Mar 6, 2012, 7:25 AM

Post #5 of 6 (398 views)
Permalink

Re: connection_max_messages vs. batch_max [In reply to]

Jeffrey Starin wrote:
> Ah ha! I see. Thank you for the update on that. Actually it's not
> many distinct messages it's email campaigning so it's a single message
> to many recipients.

Are you sure... I mean seriously, it is a fairly routine way of doing
things that each recipient of a mailshot gets a *different* message -
with things like the envelope sender address changed (for bounce
tracking), and internal components often changed (ie unique links per
recipient to allow click/response tracking). Even if the campaign
sender does not want individual click tracking they may still want an
individual "Click here to unsubscribe" link which also needs to be
unique per recipient, so making each message unique.

If the messages really are identical for each recipient then you should
be able to handle them as a single message with multiple recipients, but
that needs to be done by whatever is injecting the messages into your
system (ie you cannot collate them later - you need to receive them as a
single message with a pile of recipients).

> I don't know what yahoo expects and I've registered
> with all the Feedback Loops, etc., they haven't been delaying my email
> yet. But occasionally I do receive 421 messages. I just wish I could
> reduce bandwidth by sending X number of messages in one connection. I'm
> on a VPS and do not want to hog all the resources.

Pushing n messages in one connection has almost no effect on total
bandwidth consumption (ie total bytes moved), although since it
restricts the numbers of connections it will reduce the peak
requirements considerably.

Nigel.

--
[ Nigel Metheringham ------------------------------ nigel [at] dotdot ]
[ Ellipsis Intangible Technologies ]

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

jeffrey.starin at gmail

Mar 6, 2012, 7:32 AM

Post #6 of 6 (397 views)
Permalink

Re: connection_max_messages vs. batch_max [In reply to]

On 3/6/2012 10:25 AM, Nigel Metheringham wrote:
>
> Jeffrey Starin wrote:
>> Ah ha! I see. Thank you for the update on that. Actually it's not
>> many distinct messages it's email campaigning so it's a single message
>> to many recipients.
> Are you sure... I mean seriously, it is a fairly routine way of doing
> things that each recipient of a mailshot gets a *different* message -
> with things like the envelope sender address changed (for bounce
> tracking), and internal components often changed (ie unique links per
> recipient to allow click/response tracking). Even if the campaign
> sender does not want individual click tracking they may still want an
> individual "Click here to unsubscribe" link which also needs to be
> unique per recipient, so making each message unique.
>
> If the messages really are identical for each recipient then you should
> be able to handle them as a single message with multiple recipients, but
> that needs to be done by whatever is injecting the messages into your
> system (ie you cannot collate them later - you need to receive them as a
> single message with a pile of recipients).
>
>> I don't know what yahoo expects and I've registered
>> with all the Feedback Loops, etc., they haven't been delaying my email
>> yet. But occasionally I do receive 421 messages. I just wish I could
>> reduce bandwidth by sending X number of messages in one connection. I'm
>> on a VPS and do not want to hog all the resources.
> Pushing n messages in one connection has almost no effect on total
> bandwidth consumption (ie total bytes moved), although since it
> restricts the numbers of connections it will reduce the peak
> requirements considerably.
>
> Nigel.
>
Okay, thanks for that Nigel. You are right in that case they are indeed
different messages.

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

Interested in having your list archived? Contact Gossamer Threads