Mailing list messages stuck in the queue, why?

[ozzi4648]

Why are all our users mailing list messages getting stuck in the queue without being delivered? 14 messages with at least 15 users on the list, want to see?

[SageBrian]

I think you are a bit irresponsible posting everyone's email address on a public forum.

Unless your privacy policy states "we may post any of your information on any website without your prior knowledge"

Perhaps you can edit the post and remove these people addresses please.

[ozzi4648]

Of course you are correct, my appologies.

[ozzi4648]

*BUMP* Hello anyone listening in Cpanel land! Boys, we need this fixed please. Mailling list messages are not being delivered!

[s3kk3y]

This has been happening to me as well.

I have 2 clients using a fairly big mailing list, and during a discussion session, each get stuck in the mail queue.

[SageBrian]

Now that I think about it.... I've seen this also.

But, in my case, when looking at the error message when trying to deliver the message, it appears that only one or two of the recipients weren't getting the mail.

So, even though it was displaying with all of the email addresses, only the 'bad' addresses weren't getting delivered to.

At least, in my situation. Don't know if it's the same.

[Juanra]

Originally posted by SageBrian
Now that I think about it.... I've seen this also.

But, in my case, when looking at the error message when trying to deliver the message, it appears that only one or two of the recipients weren't getting the mail.

So, even though it was displaying with all of the email addresses, only the 'bad' addresses weren't getting delivered to.

At least, in my situation. Don't know if it's the same.

Yes, that's normal. You'll see the Ys and Ns beside each member address indicating whose addresses the message has not yet been delivered to.

[dgbaker]

Has anyone delved further into this? As we've noticed that in most cases it does NOT keep sending. If an address fails the list stops sending.

[dgbaker]

So this is why.

If an entry in redirection data contains a syntax error, Exim normally defers delivery of the original address. That means that a syntax error in a mailing list holds up all deliveries to the list. This may not be appropriate when a list is being maintained automatically from data supplied by users, and the addresses are not rigorously checked.

If the skip_syntax_errors option is set, the redirect router just skips entries that fail to parse, noting the incident in the log. If in addition syntax_errors_to is set to a verifiable address, a message is sent to it whenever a broken address is skipped. It is usually appropriate to set syntax_errors_to to the same address as errors_to.



skip_syntax_errors
Type: boolean
Default: false

If skip_syntax_errors is set, syntactically malformed addresses in non-filter redirection data are skipped, and each failing address is logged. If syntax_errors_to is set, a message is sent to the address it defines, giving details of the failures. If syntax_errors_text is set, its contents are expanded and placed at the head of the error message generated by syntax_errors_to. Usually it is appropriate to set syntax_errors_to to be the same address as the generic errors_to option. The skip_syntax_errors option is often used when handling mailing lists.

If all the addresses in a redirection list are skipped because of syntax errors, the router declines to handle the original address, and it is passed to the following routers.

If skip_syntax_errors is set when an Exim filter is interpreted, any syntax error in the filter causes filtering to be abandoned without any action being taken. The incident is logged, and the router declines to handle the address, so it is passed to the following routers.

skip_syntax_errors can be used to specify that errors in users' forward lists or filter files should not prevent delivery. The syntax_errors_to option, used with an address that does not get redirected, can be used to notify users of these errors, by means of a router like this:

userforward:
driver = redirect
allow_filter
check_local_user
file = $home/.forward
file_transport = address_file
pipe_transport = address_pipe
reply_transport = address_reply
no_verify
skip_syntax_errors
syntax_errors_to = real-$local_part@$domain
syntax_errors_text = \
This is an automatically generated message. An error has\n\
been found in your .forward file. Details of the error are\n\
reported below. While this error persists, you will receive\n\
a copy of this message for every message that is addressed\n\
to you. If your .forward file is a filter file, or if it is\n\
a non-filter file containing no valid forwarding addresses,\n\
a copy of each incoming message will be put in your normal\n\
mailbox. If a non-filter file contains at least one valid\n\
forwarding address, forwarding to the valid addresses will\n\
happen, and those will be the only deliveries that occur.


You also need a router to ensure that local addresses that are prefixed by real- are recognized, but not forwarded or filtered. For example, you could put this immediately before the userforward router:

real_localuser:
driver = accept
check_local_user
local_part_prefix = real-
transport = local_delivery