[exim] Exim queue runner problem

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Author: Ron McKeating
Date:  
To: Exim-Users (E-mail)
Subject: [exim] Exim queue runner problem
Just been reading the bug in exim thread and have been looking into
things that seem to be going wrong for us.

doing exim - bp shows this job in the queue

69h  2.0K 1CyYob-0004Fs-SM <K.L.Morton-02@???>
          JKC6326@???


but looking in

more ~exim/spool/msglog/b/1CyYob-0004Fs-SM

shows

2005-02-08 17:06:18 Received from K.L.Morton-02@??? H=
(magic.lut.ac.uk) [158.125.1.221] I=[158.125.1.219]:25 P=esmtp S=2049
id=1107882377.4208f189950e3@???
2005-02-08 17:09:29 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-08 17:09:29 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:15:48 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:15:48 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:25:44 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:25:44 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:38:59 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:38:59 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:59:55 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 12:59:55 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 14:36:16 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 14:36:16 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 15:58:39 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 15:58:39 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
2005-02-09 16:20:28 mx.aol.com.au [210.10.86.14]: Connection timed out
2005-02-09 16:20:28 jkc6326@??? <JKC6326@???> R=dnslookup
T=remote_smtp defer (110): Connection timed out
[root@scamper exim]#

so the last attempt to deliver this was at 16:20 on the 9th. It is now
14:30 on the 11th and no further delivery attempts have been made, Why
not?

retries are set as follows

# Address or Domain    Error       Retries
# -----------------    -----       -------


*                      *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,2h,1.5; F,8d,8h



This is not a single error, there are lots of messages on the queue for
over 48 hours that have not had a delivery attempt run on them for many
days. It seems some messages are getting stuck in limbo and the queue
runner never sees them.

It may be caused by our slowcoach routr which is supposed to move mail
over 24 hours old to our slow mail server, this router is the first
router

begin routers

# This router passes any mail older than 24 hours to slowcoach in order
# to keep queues down on frontline servers

too_old:
driver = manualroute
condition = ${if > {$message_age}{86400}{yes}{no}}
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = * slowcoach.lut.ac.uk


It seems often this does not move the email to the other server, but
somehow or other, once it gets over 24 hours old it goes into limbo. You
can however deliver it manually and it works fine. This has started to
happen since we went to version 4.44. There is definitely something odd
here.

Ron