[Mailman-Users] invites for large user list fails

[Mark Sapiro]

Mark Sapiro wrote:

>Anne Ramey wrote:
>
>>admin(10796): [----- Mailman Version: 2.1.9rc1 -----]
>>admin(10796): [----- Traceback ------]
>>admin(10796): Traceback (most recent call last):
>>admin(10796):   File "/usr/local/mailman/scripts/driver", line 101, in 
>>run_main
>>admin(10796):     main()
>>admin(10796):   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Cgi/confirm.py", line 
>>117, in main
>>admin(10796):     subscription_confirm(mlist, doc, cookie, cgidata)
>>admin(10796):   File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Cgi/confirm.py", line 
>>350, in subscription_confirm
>>admin(10796):     userdesc = mlist.pend_confirm(cookie, expunge=False)[1]
>>admin(10796): TypeError: unsubscriptable object

<snip>
>
>The above traceback is not from the error in inviting. It is from an
>error that occurred in trying to accept (or possibly not accept) an
>invitation or some other subscription confirmation. It was generated
>by the confirm CGI, not the admin CGI.
>
>I don't have time to look at it in more detail for a couple of days,
>but I will. It could be due to some corruption in the list's pending
>database caused by the invite error.


I've looked at the code in confirm.py, and what it does is get the
information for the cookie from the pending database, determines it's
a subscription confirmation, locks the list and gets the user
description information from the pending database.

In this case, it successfully retrieved the pending data the first
time, but then when it went back with the list locked, the pending
data for the cookie was not there.

This could happen if the cookie were expired, and another process
evicted the expired cookies between the first retrieval and the
locking of the list, or if two confirmations (say by email and web)
were occurring at the same time with this cookie.

In any case, the error seems to be an unlikely coincidence.

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