Re: [Dovecot] Multiple copies of a message
On Wednesday 30 January 2008 18:14:19 you wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jan 2008, Anne Wilson wrote:
On Tuesday 29 Jan 2008, you wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jan 2008, Anne Wilson wrote:
I have a problem and I don't know which part of the mail chain could be causing it, although dovecot does seem to be the most logical source.
I get multiple copies of messages to my Inbox. I have just deleted 24 copies of a newsletter from Computer Shopper. The worst example I have seen of this had more than 90 copies. This doesn't happen to any subfolder of Inbox, just Inbox itself.
The problem started about 10-14 days ago, on the old mail server (running Mandriva 2007.1). The new server runs CentOS and exhibits the same problem.
I'd be interested in any comments, as my efforts to track it down have got nowhere.
Are you using Dovecot's 'deliver' as your LDA (local delivery agent)? Otherwise I'd suspect the problem lies in whatever you're using for your local deliveries, creating some kind of mail loop. Check your .forward/.qmail/.procmail/whatever files. I haven't heard of/seen dovecot duplicating messages unless there are actually multiple copies in your mailbox.
Everything looks fine, and remember that this started on a server that had been running correctly for a long time.
Yes, but these aren't hard-coded things. It's usually a configuration change of some sort that results in inadvertent loops.
Fair comment. I did look when you suggested it, but I'll go through everything again in the morning.
If your LDA isn't already doing so, add a 'Delivered-To' or 'X-Mail-Loop' header at each stage, so you can more easily tell if this is what's happening.
How/where do I do that?
With procmail, you could add something like:
# fw means filter and wait
:0fw : | formail -fbA "Delivered-To: (information here)"
(e.g. in my case '(information here)' would be 'dovecot@benizi.com')
OK, thanks. I'll try that tomorrow, too.
And then (I assume you've done this, but it should be said) look at the headers of the duplicated messages to see if they're 1) actually distinct messages [external problem] 2) being delivered multiple times
They appear to be single messages, delivered multiple times. See my reply to Asheesh Laroia.
Forthcoming? I don't see a reply on-list.
Apologies. It seems that I forgot to switch on list management in kmail.
I've re-sent the message, this time to the list. It should arrive along with
this.
BTW, one of the pairs of messages I compared in that message now has 30 copies in my inbox - two this morning, when I wrote the message.
Anne
Apologies. It seems that I forgot to switch on list management in kmail. I've re-sent the message, this time to the list. It should arrive along with this.
In kmail, are you using disconnected IMAP? A snippet from an email I sent to the Alpine (email client) list: (the last two links are the most interesting)
I've never seen kmail mentioned in a positive context. Its maildir support is broken (doesn't follow the same naming rules as most MTAs/MDAs for subfolders. Not a "real" standard, but it is a de facto standard), and it eats IMAP mail. At the least, warn your correspondent to stay away from kmail's "disconnected IMAP" feature:
[1] http://lists.kde.org/?l=kdepim-users&m=113877863022834&w=2 [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/kdepim/+bug/61155 [3] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134292 [4] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104956
On Wednesday 30 January 2008 21:44:38 Benjamin R. Haskell wrote:
Apologies. It seems that I forgot to switch on list management in kmail. I've re-sent the message, this time to the list. It should arrive along with this.
In kmail, are you using disconnected IMAP? A snippet from an email I sent to the Alpine (email client) list: (the last two links are the most interesting)
I've never seen kmail mentioned in a positive context. Its maildir support is broken (doesn't follow the same naming rules as most MTAs/MDAs for subfolders. Not a "real" standard, but it is a de facto standard), and it eats IMAP mail. At the least, warn your correspondent to stay away from kmail's "disconnected IMAP" feature:
[1] http://lists.kde.org/?l=kdepim-users&m=113877863022834&w=2 [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/kdepim/+bug/61155 [3] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134292 [4] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104956
I don't use dimap, and haven't been losing mail :-)
I have seen other comments about dimap problems, but at the same time I have seen reports of people using it very successfully. It may be that some of the problems are distro-specific - I know certain other problems are. I'm looking forward to getting the Enterprise kde-pim. It sounds to be very robust.
Meanwhile, I struggle on with this problem. It never happened in the past, and I'm sure that in the end either I will find the problem or an update will cure it. I've used imap for around 3 years, and there's no way I'm giving up now :-)
Anne
participants (2)
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Anne Wilson
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Benjamin R. Haskell