[Mailman-Users] Problem/Question Regarding Bounce Processing

[Barry Finkel]

Barry Finkel wrote:
>> I have a question/problem with Mailman bounce processing.
>> We have Mailman lists here that are re-built every morning from our
>> Human Resources database.  When mail is sent to one of these lists, and
>> one or more of the e-mail addresses therein have problems, I see in my
>> morning report (and/or in the Mailman bounce log) that specific
>> addresses have had bounces.  I do not see the rejection messages that
>> are sent to
>> 
>>      listname-bounce
>> 
>> so I do not know what the problem might have been.  I assume that the
>> rejection message is discarded after it has been processed, the
>> bounce log appended, and the e-mail address bounce score increased.
>> I would like to be able to correct those bad addresses that come from
>> our HR Database when they are first seen as bad, but I cannot correct
>> them if I do not know what the nature of the bounce was.  And I really
>> do not want to have to send test mail to each of the failed addresses
>> in order to get a rejection message.

And Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net> replied:

>I'm not sure what the issue is. Do these bad addresses never get removed
>because you are continuously removing and re-adding them, thus resetting
>their bounce score every day? Or do you just want to see the 'first'
>bounce from a new member so you can delete that address faster than
>normal bounce processing does?
>
>You are correct about what Mailman does. The only actual bounce DSN that
>is not simply discarded after processing is the one that caused the
>score to reach threshold and disables delivery. That one is sent to the
>list owner with the disable notice if bounce_notify_owner_on_disable is Yes.
>
>If the problem is that bad addresses are never getting disabled and
>removed because you are continuously rebuilding the list and resetting
>scores, you could try using bin/sync_members to update the list from the
>HR data. This will not reset scores or options for existing members.
>
>If that is not the issue, and you just want to see the first bounce for
>a new member, and you don't want to do this in the MTA and you don't
>want to modify Mailman code, the only way is to set
>bounce_score_threshold to 1.0 or less so that everyone is disabled on
>the first bounce and then re-enable those that shouldn't be disabled
>so soon.	


I am sorry that I was not clear in my posting.  In a "normal" list,
where persons subscribe and unsubscribe, I am content with the Mailman
bounce processing, where Mailman will set "nomail" for addresses that
continually bounce.

When there is a bad e-mail address in our HR Database, that address
needs to be corrected so that future mailings to that address, either
via a Mailman list or via an ad-hoc mailing list derived from the HR
Database, will reach the intended recipient.  With the Mailman lists, I
(as Mailman admin) do not see the rejection message; neither do the
individual list owner(s).  So, without my daily report I do not know
that a bounce has occurred, and I do not know the nature of the
bounce.  As I did this morning, I had to send test mail to the address
to get a rejection message to see what the failure was.  If there is a
bounce, can I be assurred that the bounce was due to the mailbox not
existing?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994