missing mail

[Robert Meyer]

These questions keep coming up.  I suppose an explaination about mass mailing
and mail queues might be in order.

The way that most mass mailing software works (majordomo, mailman, etc.) is
that for each message that needs to be sent, it calls the system's Email
sending program for each address in the list.  If there is anything that keeps
the message from being delivered to a particular address, such as temporary DNS
failure, too many concurrent email processes, network bandwidth issues or
remote server connection issues, the message gets dumped into a queue and left.

Periodically, the email system will cruise through the queue and try to send
the messages that are in it.  The messages are still subject to the same
problems that caused the initial failure so they can wind up in the queue for a
long time.  If there are a lot of messages that are being sent, the concurrent
number of outgoing mail processes may be such that the process that runs the
queue can't establish outgoing connections.  In this case, emails could sit in
the queue for quite some time.

There is nothing deterministic about Email systems.  Messages are not
guaranteed to be delivered in the order sent.  There are so many things that
will delay messages that it would take reading the 'Receieved by' headers to
even find out where the delay occurred.

It even makes sense that the response to an email list could arrive before the
initial message in some cases.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!

Bob

--- Advent Systems <adventsystems at verizon.net> wrote:

> For what it's worth guy's,  I did finally get the message,  but it was 
> hours later then the previous posts.  I guess it's no big deal as long 
> as I got it.  I'm just wondering  why  and what could cause it to 
> happen?  If there was a "normal" breakdown, either at verizon or NFLUG, 
> it seems all the mail would have been held up?  I'm not that up on mail 
> servers and just was wondering what you guys thought.
> 
> Bob Randal
> 
> 
> Stephen Burke wrote:
> 
> > A valid question indeed.
> >
> > I got Bob's message (below) also, so the mail must be at least sort of 
> > working, but I have also been wondering if majordomo would perform the 
> > feat pete mentions. I get email from the gnomemeeting-list in the same 
> > once-a-day, many-post fashion. That list also allows you to choose 
> > which method you prefer (individual or grouped), but I don't remember 
> > being asked that by the majordomo program when I was registering.
> > I, too, would prefer a more holistic view of the posts here, if it is 
> > possible.
> >
> > Just a thought ,
> > S.
> >
> > P. Goodman--Koyaanisqatsi wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Bob, et al:
> >>
> >> I can't respond directly to Bob other to say I got this post to the 
> >> NFLUG list. I'm the current Apple guy in the list because I'm living 
> >> a _very_ small log house with my computer as the main source of heat 
> >> and have no room to set up my Linux box. Hell, I don't even know 
> >> where it is right now.
> >>
> >> Anyway, Bob's post brought to the surface a nagging question. I 
> >> receive all NFLUG posts as individual Emails rather than as a less 
> >> frequent, but daily composite Email of several posts. Is this how it 
> >> is done with NFLUG or am I a complete idiot? In the Northern Virginia 
> >> Linux User's Group, an Email was received once or more times per day 
> >> containing several posts, which IMHO works better.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> pete
> >>
> >>
> >> ****************************************************************
> >> * "Reality is that which, when one stops believing in it, does *
> >> *  not go away."--????                                         *
> >> ****************************************************************
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Advent Systems wrote:
> >>
> >>> Somthing strange have happened and I was wondering if the group 
> >>> could help.
> >>> I replied to a post by Daniel Villarreal at 3:12pm.  I realized I 
> >>> errored in what I told him and issued a reply post at 5:11pm.  I 
> >>> sent a reply post to Dave Andruczyk at 5:16pm.  The 5:16p post was 
> >>> delivered but the 5:15p post disappeared and has not shown up on the 
> >>> list. Is this a problem with the NFLUG list or the verizon mail 
> >>> servers.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Bob Randal
> >>>
> >>> ps-I hope you get this :)
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> 
> 



	
		
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