At 19:46 01/18/96 EST, you wrote:
>On Thu, 18  Jan 1996 20:19:11 -0500  Kathleen Bruce <[log in to unmask]>
>said:
>
>>Eric, I see the summary of errors  it understands..but is there a way to
>>filter out and present the transient failure messages ...?
>
>The transient  failure messages are  DISCARDED. The messages you  see are
>messages that LISTSERV DOES NOT  UNDERSTAND. Since it does not understand
>them, it does not  know if they are transient or what.  And since it does
>not know if they  are transient or not, it can't  summarize the ones that
>are transient. I hope this is clear now.
>
>  Eric
>
 
Okay, I don't know how many mailers there are, but I quoted below an error
message I've been seeing for a while now (I inherited the list with this
guy's messages bouncing. I think they're due to end tomorrow.) I also see a
lot of others like this. Granted, there are some superficial differences,
but if _I_ can glance and tell what they are, would machine coding to at
least try and start catching these be that hard?
 
This block in particular:
 
   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
<user@domain>... Deferred: Connection timed out with
postoffice.wcl.american.edu.
Message could not be delivered for 2 weeks
Message will be deleted from queue
 
   ----- Original message follows -----
 
seems pretty consistent in returned mail messages.
 
Note: I'm not trying to argue about what LISTSERV does or why it doesn't do
what it doesn't do. I'm simply pleading for L-SOFT to add what appears to be
a welcome solution to a large problem.
 
Philo
 
-------->quoted error message header follows, user name deleted<-----------
 
Date:         Thu, 18 Jan 1996 20:02:55 -0500
From: "L-Soft list server at AMERICAN.EDU (1.8b)"
              <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      LAWSCH-L: error report from AMERICAN.EDU
To: [log in to unmask]
X-LSV-ListID: None
Content-Length: 4997
 
The enclosed mail file has been identified as a delivery error for list
LAWSCH-L because it was sent to the reserved 'owner-lawsch-l' mailbox.
 
------------------------------ Message in error -------------------------------
Received: from troy.american.edu (troy.american.edu [147.9.1.4]) by
          atlanta.american.edu (8.6.12/8.6.11) with SMTP id TAA84085 for
          <[log in to unmask]>; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 19:57:02
          -0500
Received: (from agent@localhost) by troy.american.edu (8.6.9/8.6.9) id TAA08859
          for [log in to unmask]; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 19:33:10
          -0500
Received: from localhost (localhost) by troy.american.edu (8.6.9/8.6.9) with
          internal id TAA07848; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 19:16:12 -0500
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 19:16:12 -0500
X-PH: [log in to unmask]
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 2 weeks
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="TAA07848.822010572/troy.american.edu"
 
 
This is a MIME-encapsulated message
 
--TAA07848.822010572/troy.american.edu
 
The original message was received at Thu, 4 Jan 1996 19:14:38 -0500
from atlanta.american.edu [147.9.1.6]
 
   ----- The following addresses had delivery problems -----
<user@domain>  (unrecoverable error)
 
   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
<user@domain>... Deferred: Connection timed out with
postoffice.wcl.american.edu.
Message could not be delivered for 2 weeks
Message will be deleted from queue
 
   ----- Original message follows -----
 
 ======================================================================
 Philip B Janus               ||
 [log in to unmask]              || How can I be in such a mesh of
 1E GULC          <*>         ||     unlikeliness?
 http://www.radix.net/~philo  ||
 ======================================================================