[Tech] Mailman choked but restarted now; How to tell when it has choked

[Daniel Melnechuk]

Mailman choked a few days ago and a user finally let us know. Could  
have happened on one of the loss of disk space days.

How to tell it has choked? Well hopefully a user tells you list mail  
is not happening. Then you go to:

	/usr/local/mailman/locks

and do an ls -l and if you get a listing like this:

# ls -l
total 2
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 25 20:23  
announcements.lock.green-rainbow.org.47939.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 19:50 boston- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.47613.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 19:49 boston- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.47593.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 19:49 boston- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.47594.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 18 15:35 comcom.lock.green- 
rainbow.org.80408.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 25 13:31 county.lock.green- 
rainbow.org.70418.1923
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  4 14:11 jpgreens- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.3617.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  4 14:16 jpgreens- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.3683.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 23:26 jpgreens- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.49794.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  3 10:54 jpgreens- 
discuss.lock.green-rainbow.org.80453.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 12:25  
lucschusterenewsletter.lock.green-rainbow.org.39804.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 12:25  
lucschusterenewsletter.lock.green-rainbow.org.39814.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 12:25  
lucschusterenewsletter.lock.green-rainbow.org.39822.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 12:25  
lucschusterenewsletter.lock.green-rainbow.org.39825.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 18:47  
lucschusterenewsletter.lock.green-rainbow.org.47064.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  3 03:13 mailman.lock.green- 
rainbow.org.69357.0
-rw-rw-r--  2 mailman  mailman  63 Oct  1 04:26 master-qrunner
-rw-rw-r--  2 mailman  mailman  63 Oct  1 04:26 master-qrunner.green- 
rainbow.org.44508
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 15 06:17 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.18197.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 15 06:17 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.18199.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 16 07:45 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.36950.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  4 14:26 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.3857.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  3 17:04 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.85323.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep  3 17:04 medford-greens- 
announce.lock.green-rainbow.org.85324.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  3 02:58 membership.lock.green- 
rainbow.org.44510.7528
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  4 12:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.1661.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 16 08:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.37056.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 16 09:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.37683.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 16 12:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.39549.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 18 08:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.76398.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep 18 09:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.76896.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  3 08:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.77871.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  3 09:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.78838.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  3 12:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.81793.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  4 08:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.98244.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 mailman  mailman   0 Sep  4 09:00  
somerville-0603.lock.green-rainbow.org.98852.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 www      mailman   0 Sep 25 17:27 statecom.lock.green- 
rainbow.org.44049.0
#

it is choked. This is a particularly bad one. Most of the times i  
find it choked there are maybe 10 locks or so.

How to fix:

1. run: /usr/local/mailman/bin/mailmanctl stop
2. run: cd /usr/local/mailman/locks
3. run: ls
4. if you see a listing like above you are in the right directory so  
then run: rm *  (note: ALWAYS make sure you are in the right  
directory before you ever do rm * -- you have the power to good or  
bad, make sure you do good)
5. run: /usr/local/mailman/bin/mailmanctl start


Peace,
Dan