[Mailman-Users] mailman logs, mail flow into/out of mailman

[Mark Sapiro]

On 09/24/2014 07:34 AM, Bruce Harrison wrote:
> 
> Have had to do some tracking of mailman activity for management.  I'm familiar with the mailman logs, web server access_log, and linux sendmail logs.
> Is there any place where the flow of mail into and out of mailman, along with when log entries are made, documented anywhere?


There is some documentation at the front of
Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py, but it's not exactly what you're
looking for.

Here's a brief summary (perhaps a new FAQ is called for).

1) A message arrives addressed to the list posting address. The incoming
MTA puts it in qfiles/in/ or whatever the incoming queue is named. This
is normally logged in the MTA logs.

2) IncomingRunner (Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py) picks up the queue
entry and processes the message through a series of handlers
(Mailman/Handlers/*.py) as defined by GLOBAL_PIPELINE or the list's
pipeline attribute if any.

3) Any handler can hold, reject or discard the message. These events are
normally logged in Mailman's vette log. If the message is rejected or
discarded, we're done. If it is held, see below. Otherwise the message
is passed to the next handler in the pipeline.

4) Eventually the message passes through the ToDigest handler which adds
it to the list's digest.mbox and my trigger a digest on size; the
ToArchive handler which queues it in the archive queue for ArchRunner;
the ToUsenet handler which may queue it in the news queue for
NewsRunner; the Acknowledge handler which sends an acknowledgement to
the poster if the poster's option is set, and the ToOutgoing handler
which queues it in the out queue for OutgoingRunner which delivers the
post and writes the 'post' and 'smtp' and maybe ''smtp-failure' log entries.

5) Messages which are held can be handled by the admindb web UI or via
email. In any case, disposition is generally logged in the 'vette' log
and if the message is approved, it is processed through the remainder of
the pipeline following the handler that held it.

6) Any handler could write to the 'error' log.

Let me know if you want more detail on any of this.

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