> I have searched all of the manuals and only in the Site Manager's manual in
> the Section "5.3 Files used by Listserv" do I find .jobh and .error:
>   <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/sitemgr/sitemgr.html#5.3>:
>
>   .ERROR      LISTSERV generates an .ERROR file in the spool when it
>               encounters an error in a JOB file. These can be viewed
>               with the jobview utility and are important for tracing
>               certain errors back.
>
>   .JOBH       Held .JOB files. Such files are either being processed
>               by LISTSERV (and are thus locked) or have generated an
>               error message. These can also be viewed with the jobview
>               utility.
>
> Great, so I can view them.  Right now, we have about 100 (jobh and error
> combined) files in our spool directory, and I do not see anything in the
> manual that tells us how to handle them.  What do I do with them?
>
> Is there a recommended procedure?

The .ERROR files are created when LISTSERV sends an error message to
the LISTSERV postmasters saying that it can't process a message for
some reason.  The message lies, saying that the file was transfered to
one of the postmasters, a VM-ism.  We normally look at them and delete
the .ERROR file.

The .JOBH files usually result from LISTSERV going down while it was
processing a post.  HOLDing and FREEing the list will normally cause
them to be processed.

We wrote a program that scans the LISTSERV spool for these unusual
files and emails a daily report to the LISTSERV postmasters.  This
brings them to our attention so that we can deal with them.  Before we
did that, we would find that numerous such files had accumulated over a
period of months.

LISTSERV, like most products, is lacking in tools to help the
administrators.  It leaves files like the above lying around, it has to
be shut down to rotate the logs, there are no usage reports, there's
nothing to help in cleaning up lists that are no longer wanted, no way
to clean up ancient passwords and served-out addresses, and no way to
make global changes to all list headers.

> Lastly, I am operating on too little information, but has anyone seen
> what appears to be jobs being resurrected that are long past?  We recently
> had several lists and owner jobs that were completed months ago (February),
> and the jobs were acted on and distributed properly back at that time, but
> they were again re-distributed 2 weeks ago causing a bit of confusion and
> concern.  From comparing the sendmail and listserv log files, no mail came
> in 2 weeks ago via sendmail that generated the listserv "duplication" from
> 6+ months ago, and I did see the outgoing logs in both listserv and
> sendamil.  Are there any pointers for what else to look for on debugging
> that one?

We've had that happen to us.  We blamed it on sendmail leaving files lying
around, but never really proved it.  I don't think it's happened since we
last upgraded sendmail (knock on wood).