[Mailman-Users] Duplicate messages and unpickling errors on Mailmanlists after upgrading Mac OS X Server

[Mark Sapiro]

Alan Sill wrote:

>After applying the most recent Security Update to our Mac OS X Server  
>10.4.10 installation, we are encountering the following two problems  
>with Mailman lists hosted on this server that were working fine earlier:


Since Apple's OS X Server Mailman is modified from our distribution
(and is it still based on Mailman 2.1.5), and we have no idea what
parts of Mailman, if any, this security update touched, we're pretty
much only going to be able to give you the most general advice.


>1) Each message sent to any of our Mailman-based e-mail lists appears  
>to be sent in duplicate to each member of the list


Compare the chain of Received: headers between the two duplicates to
see if you can tell where the duplication occured.

Check your MTA logs to see whether the MTA sent 2 copies to Mailman and
whether it received 2 copies from Mailman.

Check Mailman's smtp and post logs to see how many copies Mailman sent
and to how many recipients.


>2) Under some conditions we encounter an "unpickling error" that from  
>Googling around would appear to be a python error, as follows:
>
>Aug 03 01:22:25 2007 (7442) Uncaught runner exception: invalid load  
>key, 'm'.
>Aug 03 01:22:25 2007 (7442) Traceback (most recent call last):
>UnpicklingError: invalid load key, 'm'.
>
>Aug 03 01:22:25 2007 (7442) SHUNTING: 1186122145.370055 
>+f2ab5fac4a7b2dc159498a36ed5c91b5de42f490


Is this the complete traceback? Normally there are also file paths and
code fragments with line numbers as well as the above.



>The condition that produced this particular error involved sending a  
>message to the "mailman" list on our server.
>
>Any advice from anyone on either of these two problems? Is it  
>possible that the security update left an old copy of mailman around  
>with a different python, or is this a bug in the copy of mailman that  
>we have in effect after the update?


Anything is possible until it is ruled out. How many qrunners are
running? (ps -Aw | grep python)


>We have tried disabling and re-enabling the mailing lists under  
>Server Admin, stopping and starting the Mail service entirely,  
>rebooting, stopping and starting mailman using mailmanctl from the  
>command line, stopping mailman and running the check_db and check- 
>perms commands and then re-enabling it, all to no avail.
>
>Help would be much appreciated. How can I debug the duplicate  
>outgoing messages problem?  Separately, is there a way to debug or  
>repair the "UnpicklingError" we see?


What happens if you run bin/dumpdb on
qfiles/shunt/1186122145.370055+f2ab5fac4a7b2dc159498a36ed5c91b5de42f490.pck

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan