Mailing List Archive: Qmail: users

qmail queue not clearing up...

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nkapoor at webrachna

Jun 13, 2011, 9:22 PM

Post #1 of 6 (2164 views)
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qmail queue not clearing up...

I sent out a mailer to members of my community but now the qmail queue
is not clearing up. I realize it is trying again to send out messages
to the addresses that it could not in the first attempt but the
logfile /usr/local/qmail/log/current is not showing any activity
either. Here is a 30 sec recurring snapshot:

...
messages in queue: 459
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0
Tue Jun 14 03:56:08 UTC 2011

messages in queue: 459
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0
Tue Jun 14 03:56:38 UTC 2011

messages in queue: 459
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0
Tue Jun 14 03:57:08 UTC 2011

messages in queue: 459
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0
Tue Jun 14 03:57:38 UTC 2011
...

This is what I have tried so far...all without any luck:

a) # ps aux | grep qmail-send
qmails 11911 0.0 0.0 1680 500 ? S 03:50 0:00 qmail-send
root 22389 0.0 0.0 1504 304 ? S 01:00 0:00 supervise qmail-send

b) # kill -ALRM 11911 [.it should have done it, as per the qmail-send
docs but it didn't]

c) # svc -d /service/qmail-send [since (b) did not help, stopped &
restarted qmail-send]

d) # svc -u /service/qmail-send

e) # kill -ALRM <pidof qmail-send>

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Is there a way to configure qmail so that if the first attempt to
deliver the message fails, it drops the address altogether, instead of
queuing it for more attempts later on?

Here is my system info:
-----------------------
CentOS release 5 (Final)
ucspi-tcp-toaster-0.88-1.3.5 (Unix Client Server Program Interface)
qmail-1.03-1.5.15

Thanks,
Nishi

amb-sendok-1310622194.jldegehebhdblapkaecb at bradfo

Jun 13, 2011, 10:43 PM

Post #2 of 6 (2081 views)
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Re: qmail queue not clearing up... [In reply to]

Thus said "Nishikant Kapoor" on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:22:44 CDT:

> I realize it is trying again to send out messages to the
> addresses that it could not in the first attempt but the logfile
> /usr/local/qmail/log/current is not showing any activity either.

qmail doesn't constantly attempt deliveries of messages 24/7. It only
attempts retry delivery on a schedule. This is documented here:

http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html#retry-schedule

> Is there a way to configure qmail so that if the first attempt to
> deliver the message fails, it drops the address altogether, instead of
> queuing it for more attempts later on?

If you don't want to queue emails, why are you using an MTA (like qmail)
to deliver your messages? You might get better peformance if you avoid
the queueing altogether and just attempt deliveries in your own
application. Drop any that fail. That being said, you could probably set
queuelifetime to 0 and that might have the desired effect.

Andy

marcus at synchromedia

Jun 13, 2011, 10:51 PM

Post #3 of 6 (2075 views)
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Re: qmail queue not clearing up... [In reply to]

On 14 Jun 2011, at 07:43, Andy Bradford wrote:

>> Is there a way to configure qmail so that if the first attempt to
>> deliver the message fails, it drops the address altogether, instead of
>> queuing it for more attempts later on?
>
> If you don't want to queue emails, why are you using an MTA (like qmail)
> to deliver your messages? You might get better peformance if you avoid
> the queueing altogether and just attempt deliveries in your own
> application. Drop any that fail. That being said, you could probably set
> queuelifetime to 0 and that might have the desired effect.

The downside of doing that is that when (not if) you get greylisted/deferred, your redeliveries won't happen, and the receiver will think you're a spammer because you didn't come back...

Marcus

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uffe at uffe

Jun 14, 2011, 12:40 AM

Post #4 of 6 (2075 views)
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Re: qmail queue not clearing up... [In reply to]

On 2011-06-14 07:51, Marcus Bointon wrote:
> On 14 Jun 2011, at 07:43, Andy Bradford wrote:
>
>>> Is there a way to configure qmail so that if the first attempt to
>>> deliver the message fails, it drops the address altogether, instead of
>>> queuing it for more attempts later on?
>>
>> If you don't want to queue emails, why are you using an MTA (like qmail)
>> to deliver your messages? You might get better peformance if you avoid
>> the queueing altogether and just attempt deliveries in your own
>> application. Drop any that fail. That being said, you could probably set
>> queuelifetime to 0 and that might have the desired effect.
>
> The downside of doing that is that when (not if) you get greylisted/deferred, your redeliveries won't happen, and the receiver will think you're a spammer because you didn't come back...
>

Just FYI - I know it is a little off topic - but may be useful

If you want to force attempt re-sending every email in qmail queue then
you should clear the qmail-remote tcp timeout table.

You can inspect the timeout table with the 'qmail-tcpto' command:
http://www.ezmlm.org/man/man8/qmail-tcpto.8.html

You can flush the timeout table with the 'qmail-tcpok' command
http://www.ezmlm.org/man/man8/qmail-tcpok.8.html

After clearing the tcp timeout table you can send the alarm signal to
qmail and it will attempt to deliver *ALL* mails in the queue regardless
of previous timeout state.

/Uffe

qmail-09 at jeremykister

Jun 14, 2011, 12:42 AM

Post #5 of 6 (2079 views)
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Re: qmail queue not clearing up... [In reply to]

On 6/14/2011 12:22 AM, Nishikant Kapoor wrote:
> Any pointers would be much appreciated.

might want to try /var/qmail/bin/qmail-tcpok before svc -a
/service/qmail-send

that'll tell qmail to forget what it's learned about recent failured
connections and retry sending queued mail.

--

Jeremy Kister
http://jeremy.kister.net./

amb-sendok-1310700855.mfpkkldlohpfckapfjmk at bradfo

Jun 14, 2011, 8:34 PM

Post #6 of 6 (2074 views)
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Re: qmail queue not clearing up... [In reply to]

Thus said Marcus Bointon on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:51:06 +0200:

> The downside of doing that is that when (not if) you get
> greylisted/deferred, your redeliveries won't happen, and the receiver
> will think you're a spammer because you didn't come back...

Well, the OP did say that ``if the first attempt to deliver the message
fails, it drops the address altogether.'' Sounds like the OP isn't
interested in retries.

Andy

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