[Mailman-Users] admin interface "stalling" for some lists

[Andreas Hasenack]

Hi, I checked the archives before and found two other users
with the same problem, but sadly no answer. Maybe this time...

For a specific list, the admin interface just doesn't work. Either
I get a 503 error or a timeout. A ps ax|grep python shows many
processes on the server:
12994 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/python -S /usr/lib/mailman/scripts/driver ad
13022 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/python -S /usr/lib/mailman/scripts/driver ad

Everytime I click on the admin link for that list, a new process is spawned and
stays there. Other lists work fine.

Apache's log shows:
[Thu Feb 15 10:48:42 2001] [error] [client x.x.x.x] Premature end of script headers: /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/admin

This is for the client who got the 503 error. Afterwards, he just gets time outs
(the document contained no data).

An strace of one of these processes:
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 580000}) = 0 (Timeout)
link("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock.distro.conectiva.com.br.12994", "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock") = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
open("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", O_RDONLY) = 5
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
lseek(5, 0, SEEK_CUR)                   = 0
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x4015d000
_llseek(5, 0, [0], SEEK_CUR)            = 0
read(5, "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock."..., 4096) = 61
read(5, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(5)                                = 0
munmap(0x4015d000, 4096)                = 0
gettimeofday({982245161, 508158}, NULL) = 0
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 561983}) = 0 (Timeout)
link("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock.distro.conectiva.com.br.12994", "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock") = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
open("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", O_RDONLY) = 5
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
lseek(5, 0, SEEK_CUR)                   = 0
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x4015d000
_llseek(5, 0, [0], SEEK_CUR)            = 0
read(5, "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock."..., 4096) = 61
read(5, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(5)                                = 0
munmap(0x4015d000, 4096)                = 0
gettimeofday({982245163, 77289}, NULL)  = 0
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 294377}) = 0 (Timeout)
link("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock.distro.conectiva.com.br.12994", "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock") = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
open("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", O_RDONLY) = 5
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
lseek(5, 0, SEEK_CUR)                   = 0
fstat(5, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x4015d000
_llseek(5, 0, [0], SEEK_CUR)            = 0
read(5, "/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock."..., 4096) = 61
read(5, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(5)                                = 0
munmap(0x4015d000, 4096)                = 0
gettimeofday({982245163, 377306}, NULL) = 0
stat("/usr/lib/mailman/locks/lds.lock", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0664, st_size=61, ...}) = 0
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 494235} <unfinished ...>

and it keeps looping.

So far, it seems that the problem starts when a specific client connects to the admin
interface, he gets an immediate 503 problem and then no one else can connect to the
admin interface of that list. Weird.

Error log in mailman shows nothing related.

Any clues?

Versions:
mailman-2.0.1-1cl
python-1.5.2-6cl
apache-midgard-1.2.5-10

(this is apache 1.3.11 + midgard)

Other lists on the same server work fine. I removed this lds list and created
it again, worked only for a short period of time.

BTW, "lds" is the first list created under mailman-2.0.1, the previous ones were
created while the beta5 version was installed.