[Dovecot] Multiple copies of a message

Anne Wilson cannewilson at googlemail.com
Wed Jan 30 22:29:17 EET 2008


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 at 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 

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