SUMMARY: sendmail/procmail problems...

I asked:

> I am not sure if this is a procmail question, a sendmail question, a
> solaris 8 question, or a rant at the ***hole who has inflicted the
> sobig worm on us.
> 
> I use procmail (v3.13.1.  Yes, its kinda old, but it does what I want)
> to sort incoming email into the appropriate mail folder.  I use MH within
> emacs, if that is relevant.
> 
> Up until late last week, it has been working without a problem.  Starting
> late last week, though, I have started not getting mail.
> 
> My local .forward file is how I enable procmail:
> "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -f- #cbar44"
> 
> On the mailhost, there are dozens of procmail processes that are spawned
> in my name:
>   cbar44  9748  9746  0 15:03:23 ?        0:02 /usr/local/bin/procmail -f-
> 
> My procmail log file just shows a constant locking of my mail spool file:
> [...]
> procmail: [10989] Mon Aug 25 16:09:02 2003
> procmail: Locking "/var/mail/cbar44.lock"
> procmail: [10255] Mon Aug 25 16:09:02 2003
> procmail: Locking "/var/mail/cbar44.lock"
> procmail: [11225] Mon Aug 25 16:09:02 2003
> procmail: Locking "/var/mail/cbar44.lock"
> procmail: [10214] Mon Aug 25 16:09:04 2003
> procmail: Locking "/var/mail/cbar44.lock"
> procmail: [10922] Mon Aug 25 16:09:04 2003
> procmail: Locking "/var/mail/cbar44.lock"
> [...]
> 
> Note that my procmail sorting rules are never read.
> 
> mailq on the mailhost reports around 50 pending emails to me, but with
> a wide variety of problems.
> 
> h7PK01M09492*     111 Mon Aug 25 15:00 <cbar44@mozart.tsg.cbot.com>
>                                        "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -f- #cbar44"
> h7PET5w00726*     674 Mon Aug 25 09:29 <cbar44@shalmaneser.tsg.cbot.com>
>                  (Deferred: prog mailer (/bin/sh) exited with EX_TEMPFAIL)
>                                        "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -f- #cbar44"
> h7PKTVM10194*      84 Mon Aug 25 15:29 <root@patton.cbot.com>
>                                        "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -f- #cbar44"
> h7PETHw00738*   24854 Mon Aug 25 09:29 <LMAR44@cbot.com>
>                  (Deferred: prog mailer (/bin/sh) exited with EX_TEMPFAIL)
>                                        "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -f- #cbar44"
> 
> there are a lot more, but here are a few.  Note that there is no error for
> several of these entries.  They just don't get sent.  Some others report
> that /bin/sh has failed.  Huh?

The solution:

Time to rant at the ***hole who has inflicted the sobig worm on us.
While unix boxes are not vulnerable, the emails generated at other sites
to me were too much for procmail to handle.  It was locking my mailbox
so fast that it couldn't keep up.  A change of the firewall solved the
problem.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Christopher L. Barnard         O     When I was a boy I was told that |
| cbarnard@tsg.cbot.com         / \    anybody could become president.  |
| (312) 347-4901               O---O   Now I'm beginning to believe it. |
| http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~cbarnard                --Clarence Darrow |
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