The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[Amos <address@concealed>]

it was looping because there were thousands of lines like this:

sympa_msg[8325]: err main::#240 > Sympa::Spindle::spin#80 > Sympa::Spindle::ProcessIncoming::_twist#241 List sympa does not exist

bulk[81802]: notice Sympa::Mailer::store() Forked process 17120: /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -odi -oem -f '<>' -- address@concealed

and corresponding lines like so:

Sep 18 03:29:07 sympahost postfix/pickup[42345]: 755821FE8B9: uid=153 from=<>

Sep 18 03:29:07 sympahost postfix/cleanup[42098]: 755821FE8B9: message-id=<address@concealed>

Sep 18 03:29:07 sympahost postfix/qmgr[2675]: 755821FE8B9: from=<>, size=2638, nrcpt=1 (queue active)

Sep 18 03:29:08 sympahost postfix/pipe[42065]: 755821FE8B9: to=<address@concealed>, relay=sympa, delay=1.3, delays=0.29/0/0/1, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via sympa service)

Sep 18 03:29:08 sympahost postfix/qmgr[2675]: 755821FE8B9: removed

In test I was able to force this looping with a test message like so:

......

Received: by tlists.ourdomain.edu (Postfix, from userid 153)

        id D0AFC20C985; Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:03:04 -0500 (CDT)

Message-ID: <address@concealed>

Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:03:04 -0500

To: address@concealed

From: "UTD Sympa" <address@concealed>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Auto-Submitted: auto-replied

Content-Type: text/plain

Subject: List unknown

X-Loop: address@concealed

X-Mailer: Sympa 6.2.16

list sympa

......

And I injected it into the system like so:

# sendmail -r address@concealed address@concealed < /var/tmp/t

After my crude hack, when I restarted Sympa, I got:

Sep 23 18:01:46 sympahost sympa_msg[102845]: debug3 Sympa::Spindle::ProcessIncoming::_twist() X-Loop: address@concealed

Sep 23 18:01:46 sympahost sympa_msg[102845]: err main::#240 > Sympa::Spindle::spin#80 > Sympa::Spindle::ProcessIncoming::_twist#240 Ignoring message which would cause a loop (X-Loop: address@concealed)

OK, I sent a test message to sympa-request and it bounced:

Generating server: lists.ourdomain.edu

address@concealed

lists.ourdomain.edu

Remote Server returned '554 5.1.1 <lists.ourdomain.edu #5.1.1 X-Sympa; Bad destination mailbox address>'

Hmmm.... using Postfix, those aliases might not work.  I commented out from aliases file:

## This aliases file is dedicated to Sympa Mailing List Manager

sympa: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/queue address@concealed"

listmaster: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/queue address@concealed"

bounce+*: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/bouncequeue address@concealed"

abuse-feedback-report: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/bouncequeue address@concealed"

## See sympa_virtual_regexp for these

##sympa-request: address@concealed

##sympa-owner: address@concealed

and instead put them into virtual map:

virtual_alias_maps = regexp:/deploy/sympa/etc/sympa_virtual_regexp

which contains:

# These need to go to a human

/^sympa-request@lists\.ourdomain\.edu$/          address@concealed

/^sympa-owner@lists\.ourdomain\.edu$/            address@concealed

#

/^(.*)-owner@lists\.ourdomain\.edu$/             $address@concealed

now delivery to sympa-request works.  Well, isn't that embarrassing.  

On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 5:16 PM, IKEDA Soji <address@concealed> wrote:

Amos,

2016/09/24 21:35、Amos (via sympa-users Mailing List) <address@concealed> のメッセージ:

On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 7:28 PM, IKEDA Soji <address@concealed> wrote:

Hi Amos,

Where is <sympa-request> address on your server forwarded to? It should be forwarded to definitive destination such as existing human.  Because Sympa does not have any function specific to this address (not alike <LISTNAME-request> address).

Regards,

-- Soji

## This aliases file is dedicated to Sympa Mailing List Manager

sympa: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/queue address@concealed"

listmaster: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/queue address@concealed"

bounce+*: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/bouncequeue address@concealed"

abuse-feedback-report: "| /deploy/sympa/bin/bouncequeue address@concealed"

sympa-request: address@concealed

sympa-owner: address@concealed

do-not-reply: /dev/null

It hasn't changed since we started using sympa long ago.

However, you say <sympa-request> address is "looping".  Would you please confirm it? For example:

- Send a message to <sympa-request> manually and see what happens.

- Check sympa log _and_ MTA log (such as maillog) to know how repetition of message delivery occurs.

Regards,

-- Soji

Amos