The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[Elwyn Davies <address@concealed>]

Eric Sandquist wrote:
> Yes, that is the problem.  However, in order to minimize the nuber of 
> writes to those files, I follow the plan at the bottom of 
> http://www.sympa.org/faq/postfix
The scheme that I developed is a somewhat improved (at least IMHO) 
version of that one.
> One thing I don't want to do is modify the sympa code as it 
> complicates upgrades.  I did that in a previous version.
Indeed.. however the updates in the Sympa code are just to automate the 
updating of the virtual aliases file.  Depending on how many mailing 
lists you have and how much they change you could write a simple script 
to do the updates and avoid changing the Sympa code.

> Unfortunately this wildcard approach is creating a massive number of 
> bad messages for lists that dont exist.   I have cleared them for now 
> and may crate a cron job to do it periodically to keep the numbers in 
> check.  But it would be better if they were never created.  Currently, 
> this is worse than having the updates to the alias files or virtual files.
Interesting (if irritating)!  I wasn't sure how much of a problem this 
might be.  Obviously spending the time to sort out the problem properly 
was the right answer.
> I have made some modifications to the pre-postfix spam filtering and 
> blocked one IP using IPchains and that seems to have helped a lot.
>
> But I may end up having to create the aliases and re-enable 
> alias_manager.pl.
Once I am out from under my current project (in may) perhaps I ought to 
submit a proper 'fix' for the mainstream code through the new 
cooperative development framework.

Judging from my previous experience this shouldn't take very long.

Regards,
Elwyn

> Eric
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elwyn Davies" <address@concealed>
> To: "Eric Sandquist" <address@concealed>
> Cc: <address@concealed>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 12:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [sympa-users] Sympa.pl 6.2a.4 CPU load
>
>
> > Hi, Eric.
> >
> > On Tue, 2011-03-08 at 08:18 -0600, Eric Sandquist wrote:
> > > Found the issue with a large accumulation of files at 
> > > /home/sympa/spool/msg
> > > and /home/sympa/spool/msg/bad
> > >
> > > These files were accumulated from nonexistant lists that spammers were
> > > attempting to hit.  We are using post fix with regular expressions 
> > > to handle
> > > email routing verses a large number aliases.  Have not found a 
> > > solution yet,
> > > but did clear out the files.
> > How specific are your alias patterns?  It is possible that what you are
> > seeing here is what I called 'the wildcard match problem' that was
> > discussed extensively some years ago regarding where messages are
> > discarded.
> >
> > I analysed the problem and did some work to ensure that the spam
> > messages were never offered to Sympa by having very specific alias
> > filters in Postfix. This topic is discussed at
> > http://www.sympa.org/faq/postfix
> >
> > My solution is described here
> > http://www.folly.org.uk/sympa/
> > (also referenced via http://www.sympa.org/doc/index#installing_sympa)
> > Unfortunately I haven't got around to updating the solution for version
> > 6 of Sympa but it would probably not be difficult to do.
> > The solution has been running satisfactorily for 3 years.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Elwyn Davies
> >
> >
> > > The Sympa.pl process is now running at low levels again.
> > >
> > > Eric
> > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric C Sandquist" 
> > > <address@concealed>
> > > To: <address@concealed>
> > > Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 12:57 PM
> > > Subject: [sympa-users] Sympa.pl 6.2a.4 CPU load
> > >
> > >
> > > >I have Sympa 6.2a.4 installed on a 4cpu system.  The CPU load for 
> > > >process
> > > > sympa.pl is 40-60% on one core consitently,  This creates a 
> > > significant
> > > > load
> > > > on resources for other sites on the server.
> > > >
> > > > Is this something that others have experienced?  I have been 
> > > unable to
> > > > identify the cause.
> > > >
> > > > Eric
> > > >
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