Hi All,

I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
some stupid error I just can't see.

The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.

The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.

# Debian User List
:0H:
* ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
-debian-user

The behavior - a given list will suddenly stop sorting correctly, and
wind up in my unclassified mailbox, with the probable spam. It is
likely that some messages continue to be correctly classified, but
many do not, and the result is a strong temptation to unsubscribe.

The recipe I tried in the hopes that something was merely confusing
procmail as to where to find the boundary between header and body:

# Debian User List
:0HB:
* ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
-debian-user

This did not appear to , and certainly failed to solce the
problem.

I've looked at the messages that are being mis-classified, using emacs
in case mutt's show-header mode was kindly concealing special
characters embedded somewhere inconvenient.

They all have lines like:

To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

(I haven't noticed one where the list was CC'd, though I do see those
in the correctly-filed list traffic. However, I'm sampling only a very
few of the misfiled messages, which are unfortunately extremely
plentiful.)

This has happened before. The last time, it was a very high volume
list hosted on yahoogroups.com. The problem with that list eventually
cleared up, but lasted long enough to be extremely annoying.

So what on earth am I doing wrong? I figure this has got to be my very
own regex botch, but I'm just about completely unable to see it.

The system is running sarge, not updated to the latest and greatest
fixes (naughty me), and the procmail filter is associated with the
user receiving the mail, rather than being applied to all mail
received. (There's no practical difference, since it's a single user
system, but I suppose the configuration might matter.)

--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@worldash.org)


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Arlie Stephens wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
> affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
> some stupid error I just can't see.
>
> The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
> particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
> complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.
>
> The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
>
> # Debian User List
> :0H:
> * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> -debian-user
>
> The behavior - a given list will suddenly stop sorting correctly, and
> wind up in my unclassified mailbox, with the probable spam. It is
> likely that some messages continue to be correctly classified, but
> many do not, and the result is a strong temptation to unsubscribe.
>
> The recipe I tried in the hopes that something was merely confusing
> procmail as to where to find the boundary between header and body:
>
> # Debian User List
> :0HB:
> * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> -debian-user
>
> This did not appear to , and certainly failed to solce the
> problem.
>
> I've looked at the messages that are being mis-classified, using emacs
> in case mutt's show-header mode was kindly concealing special
> characters embedded somewhere inconvenient.
>
> They all have lines like:
>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
>
> (I haven't noticed one where the list was CC'd, though I do see those
> in the correctly-filed list traffic. However, I'm sampling only a very
> few of the misfiled messages, which are unfortunately extremely
> plentiful.)
>
> This has happened before. The last time, it was a very high volume
> list hosted on yahoogroups.com. The problem with that list eventually
> cleared up, but lasted long enough to be extremely annoying.
>
> So what on earth am I doing wrong? I figure this has got to be my very
> own regex botch, but I'm just about completely unable to see it.
>
> The system is running sarge, not updated to the latest and greatest
> fixes (naughty me), and the procmail filter is associated with the
> user receiving the mail, rather than being applied to all mail
> received. (There's no practical difference, since it's a single user
> system, but I suppose the configuration might matter.)
>
>

maybe something like this would work?
:0:
* ^List-Id:.*debian-user\.lists\.debian\.org
-debian-user




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On Mar 08 2007, jeffd wrote:
>
> Arlie Stephens wrote:

> >I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
> >affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
> >some stupid error I just can't see.
> >
> >The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
> >particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
> >complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.
> >
> >The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
> >
> > # Debian User List
> > :0H:
> > * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> > -debian-user

[snip]

> maybe something like this would work?
> :0:
> * ^List-Id:.*debian-user\.lists\.debian\.org
> -debian-user

It looked promising, but didn't work. Thanks anyway.

--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@worldash.org)


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On 3/8/07, Arlie Stephens <arlie@worldash.org> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
> affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
> some stupid error I just can't see.
>
> The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
> particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
> complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.
>
> The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
>
> # Debian User List
> :0H:
> * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> -debian-user
>
>
Does running procmail with the VERBOSE flag reveal anything?

Stuart

On Mar 08 2007, S Scharf wrote:
>
> On 3/8/07, Arlie Stephens <arlie@worldash.org> wrote:
> >
> >The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
> >
> > # Debian User List
> > :0H:
> > * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> > -debian-user
> >
> >
> Does running procmail with the VERBOSE flag reveal anything?

Good question. I'd forgotten that was possible, if I ever knew. Let's
see if I can figure out how to do it ;-) (Procmail is presently
running automatically, with whatever arguments postfix decides to pass
it ;-) However, I distinctly remember running it from the command
line, some years ago, when first figuring out how to use it ;-))

More info when I've figured that out. A quick scan of the procmail man
page isn't sufficient - neither for making it verbose nor for figuring
out how to get it to process mail from an existing file - so I may not
get farther data until after work today. (It's my home system that's
misbehaving, and I really ought to have left for work already.)

> Stuart

--
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(Arlie Stephens arlie@worldash.org)


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On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 09:37:50AM -0800, Arlie Stephens wrote:
> On Mar 08 2007, S Scharf wrote:
> >
> > On 3/8/07, Arlie Stephens <arlie@worldash.org> wrote:
> > >
> > >The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
> > >
> > > # Debian User List
> > > :0H:
> > > * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> > > -debian-user
> > >
> > >
> > Does running procmail with the VERBOSE flag reveal anything?
>
> Good question. I'd forgotten that was possible, if I ever knew. Let's
> see if I can figure out how to do it ;-) (Procmail is presently
> running automatically, with whatever arguments postfix decides to pass
> it ;-) However, I distinctly remember running it from the command
> line, some years ago, when first figuring out how to use it ;-))
>
> More info when I've figured that out. A quick scan of the procmail man
> page isn't sufficient - neither for making it verbose nor for figuring
> out how to get it to process mail from an existing file - so I may not
> get farther data until after work today. (It's my home system that's
> misbehaving, and I really ought to have left for work already.)
>

you can set a logfile and verbosity

VERBOSE=on
LOGILE=...

in .procmailrc.

A




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On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Arlie Stephens wrote:

> On Mar 08 2007, jeffd wrote:
>>
>> Arlie Stephens wrote:
>
>>> I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
>>> affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
>>> some stupid error I just can't see.
>>>
>>> The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
>>> particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
>>> complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.
>>>
>>> The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
>>>
>>> # Debian User List
>>> :0H:
>>> * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
>>> -debian-user
>
> [snip]
>
>> maybe something like this would work?
>> :0:
>> * ^List-Id:.*debian-user\.lists\.debian\.org
>> -debian-user
>
> It looked promising, but didn't work. Thanks anyway.

This works for me:
:0:
* ^TOdebian-user
mail/debuser

HTH
-ishwar


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On Thu, 08 Mar 2007, Arlie Stephens wrote:

> On Mar 08 2007, jeffd wrote:
> >
> > Arlie Stephens wrote:
>
> > >I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
> > >affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
> > >some stupid error I just can't see.
> > >
> > >The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
> > >particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a
> > >complete lack of any identifying tag in the subject line.
[snip]

Here are the rules I use:

:0:
* ^X-Mailing-List:.*debian-user.*lists\.debian\.org
list-debian-user

:0:
* ^X-Mailing-List:.*debian-devel.*lists\.debian\.org
list-debian-devel

.... etc ...

HTH,
-- Brad


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Arlie Stephens <arlie@worldash.org>:
>
> I've got a strange problem with my procmail setup, and it's presently
> affecting my handling of the debian-user list. I suspect I've made
> some stupid error I just can't see.
>
> The goal - filter all mailing lists into their own mailboxes,
> particularly lists like this one, which combine high volume with a

# ------------------------------------
# debian-${MATCH}
#
# The match operator matches whatever the regexp that follows
# it matches.
#
:0
* 1^0 ^X\-Mailing\-List:.*debian-\/[a-z.-]*
* 1^0 ^Newsgroups:.*debian.\/[a-z.-]*
* 1^0 $ ^Received:.*${DEBIAN}
{
LOG="debian-${MATCH} - "
:0:
00.debian-${MATCH}
}

> The system is running sarge, not updated to the latest and greatest

I run Sarge.

> received. (There's no practical difference, since it's a single user
> system, but I suppose the configuration might matter.)

Mine's a singe user system.


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On Mar 08 2007, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 09:37:50AM -0800, Arlie Stephens wrote:
> > On Mar 08 2007, S Scharf wrote:
> > >
> > > On 3/8/07, Arlie Stephens <arlie@worldash.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >The recipe that *usually* works, indented here for convenient reading.
> > > >
> > > > # Debian User List
> > > > :0H:
> > > > * ^(To|Cc):.*debian-user
> > > > -debian-user
> > > >
> > > Does running procmail with the VERBOSE flag reveal anything?

> you can set a logfile and verbosity
>
> VERBOSE=on
> LOGILE=...
>
> in .procmailrc.

Well, I did a bunch of experimenting, and found that previously
misfiled messages were always filed correctly in a test setup,
and the LOGFILE revealed nothing untoward - in the test setup.

Finally I decided to risk an overflowing logfile or real life mail
delivery problem, and turned on verbose on the live procmailrc.
Lo and behold ..

procmail: Match on "^(To|Cc):.*debian-user"
procmail: Locking "-debian-user.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=-debian-user"
procmail: Opening "-debian-user"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock
procmail: Error while writing to "-debian-user"
procmail: Truncated file to former size
procmail: Unlocking "-debian-user.lock"

procmail: No match on "^(To|Cc):.*gtu-list"
...

procmail: Locking "-other.lock"
procmail: [29292] Fri Mar 9 10:27:33 2007
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=-other"
procmail: Opening "-other"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock
procmail: Unlocking "-other.lock"
procmail: Notified comsat: "arlie@740838:/home/arlie/Mail/-other"

In other words, the recipe is correct, but procmail can't deliver to
the mailbox file, and goes on to try other recipes. Why?

$ ll Mail/-deb*
-rw------- 1 arlie arlie 52796850 Mar 9 10:27 Mail/-debian-user

It appears that _mutt_ can add more messages to this file - when I save
them manually from Mail/-other - but procmail objects to its length.

The problem's been intermittent because I occassionally find time to
read a few messages - or delete uninteresting threads en masse. But
since I'm not keeping up with incoming - not in general - I have a
problem.

I've temporarily "solved" this by
$mv Mail/-debian-user Mail/-debian-user2
but it obviously won't stay solved.

I suppose the next thing to do is to find out whether the limit is
configurable - or write a cron job to rotate and retire incoming
mailboxes for my high volume lists, since I'm obviously not managing
to clean out uninteresting threads manually, fast enough to be
useful.

--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@worldash.org)


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On Fri, Mar 09, 2007 at 10:44:21AM -0800, Arlie Stephens wrote:
>

[snip procmail log]
>
> In other words, the recipe is correct, but procmail can't deliver to
> the mailbox file, and goes on to try other recipes. Why?
>
> $ ll Mail/-deb*
> -rw------- 1 arlie arlie 52796850 Mar 9 10:27 Mail/-debian-user
>
> It appears that _mutt_ can add more messages to this file - when I save
> them manually from Mail/-other - but procmail objects to its length.
>
> The problem's been intermittent because I occassionally find time to
> read a few messages - or delete uninteresting threads en masse. But
> since I'm not keeping up with incoming - not in general - I have a
> problem.
>
> I've temporarily "solved" this by
> $mv Mail/-debian-user Mail/-debian-user2
> but it obviously won't stay solved.
>
> I suppose the next thing to do is to find out whether the limit is
> configurable - or write a cron job to rotate and retire incoming
> mailboxes for my high volume lists, since I'm obviously not managing
> to clean out uninteresting threads manually, fast enough to be
> useful.

archivemail or maybe switch the maildir

A

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Am 2007-03-08 08:50:13, schrieb Arlie Stephens:
> On Mar 08 2007, jeffd wrote:
> > maybe something like this would work?
> > :0:
> > * ^List-Id:.*debian-user\.lists\.debian\.org
> > -debian-user
>
> It looked promising, but didn't work. Thanks anyway.

I LOVE this ultragenial answers!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Please put a "VEBOSE=on" in a line before the :0:
and send us the output.

Thanks, Greetings and nice Day
Michelle Konzack
Systemadministrator
Tamay Dogan Network
Debian GNU/Linux Consultant


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