The new DISTRIBUTE has been running on SEARN for about 48h now, and while
the difference in wall-clock time is  not very impressive on SEARN (which
is mostly I/O bound), the CPU consumption is down to about the same level
as LMail, which is to say about 3 times less than before.
 
When  watching the  console  logs for  "abnormal"  behaviour, you  should
disregard any job  coming from LISTEARN. I wasted over  1h verifying that
all  the  "crazy" DISTRIBUTE  paths  I  was  observing were  really  what
LISTSERV had been ordered to do  by the originating LISTEARN, rather than
some obscure bug. Here is an example:
 
Date:         Sun, 7 Feb 93 23:52:47 IST
From:         ListEARN List Processor (1.3) <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Output of your job "ERIC"
To:           [log in to unmask]
 
Path information (excerpt):
 
 RICEVM1 : Direct send
 UBVM    : RICEVM1 UBVM
 USCVM   : RICEVM1 USCVM
 SEARN   : Direct send
 UTORONTO: SEARN RICEVM1 PSUVM MCGILL1 UTORONTO
 RUTVM1  : FRMOP11 RICEVM1 PUCC RUTVM1
 
When acting as  a DISTRIBUTE relay, LISTSERV merely  implements the paths
calculated by the  originating server. If the routing  for RICEVM1 varies
depending on  the final destination,  that is  what LISTSERV will  do and
this is not a bug. If in doubt,  check the old console logs to see if the
routing has changed (bear in mind  that small changes are possible due to
new subscribers and so on).
 
  Eric