On Oct 20, 2011, at 11:30 AM, Wauford, Melissa wrote: > On Oct 20, 2011, at 9:13 AM, Jacob Haller wrote: >> On Oct 19, 2011, at 7:47 PM, Wauford, Melissa wrote: >>> On Oct 19, 2011, at 6:32 PM, Jacob Haller wrote: >>> >>>> Generally how LISTSERV delivers mail is by creating .mail files in ~listserv/spool/. Then the SMTP workers (if SMTP_FORWARD_1 is configured) or the main LISTSERV process (if not) read the >>>.mail >files and deliver them to the outgoing mail server. >>> >>>> It sounds like LISTSERV was creating a separate .mail file for each recipient, which happens for mail merge messages (since each recipient gets a slightly different copy of the message), or if >>>MAXBSMTP is set to 1 in LISTSERV's configuration, or under a couple of other sort of specialized situations. >>> >>>> To prevent the sort of situation you describe, I would probably impose a limit on the size of messages, either using 'SizeLim=' settings on individual mailing lists or by setting a global limit via >>>FILEMAXL. >>> >>> Hmm. I'm pretty sure this wasn't a mail merge. I don't think we ever turned on embedded mail merge (although perhaps it's on by default), and the list definitely doesn't have a mail-merge keyword. The log shows a standard mail message being processed. The only difference in the message files (I did a diff) was the "to" line (or whatever it is in pure SMTP). They looked like: >>> >>> owner-listname*person**1SMARKETING*[log in to unmask] >>> >>> Which is why I assumed the problem might be with the auto-probe setting. > >> OK, that makes sense. What is the mailing list's configuration? > > Auto-Delete= Yes,Full-Auto,Delay(3),Max(10),Probe(1) […] > Since the list is used maybe four times a year, the delay and max settings are obviously insane ( I didn't set up the list). I'm guessing that if the probe setting is really what's causing the individual messages in the spool, I probably need to bump up the value in the probe setting to at least 4. But maybe I just need to remove the auto-delete keyword and let the list owner deal with the bounces. Yes, Probe(1) means every subscriber is probed every day there's a mailing, so that's why you saw what you saw. For a list that is posted to so infrequently I would probably just remove subscribers on the first bounce, and use "Delay(1),Max(0)". Regarding what Probe() number makes sense, Probe(4) would mean 1/4 of the subscribers would be probed, which is fine if you have the resources, but if it's a large list I might use something like Probe(10) or Probe(20) to probe 1/10 or 1/20 of the subscribers each mailing. It'll take longer to get rid of some of the bad addresses, but it won't be as likely to kill the server whenever there's a big mailing. Anyway, my two cents' worth! Thanks, jwgh ############################ To unsubscribe from the LSTSRV-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=LSTSRV-L&A=1