1.23. I have a specific/detailed question – What kind of information do I need to provide when posting a question to this mailing list?

In addition to the steps listed in the FAQ entry 1.22 at I have a basic question -- What kind of information do I need to provide when posting a question to this mailing list?, we would like some additional information. Specifically:

1. Your precise hardware configuration. This means brand (e.g., HP, Dell, Apple, etc...), CPU type (e.g., Intel x86, Athlon, UltraSPARC-IIi, PowerPC G4, etc...), number of CPUs, CPU speed, amount of physical RAM, amount of virtual memory, amount of disk space on the various filesystems, what kind of filesystems are installed where (e.g., softupdates is enabled on this filesystem but not that one, ext2fs in async mode is enabled on this filesystem but IBM JFS is installed on that one, etc...), what kind and speed of disk drives/drive arrays you have and which filesystems are where, your disk controller types, and so on.

2. Your precise software configuration. This means operating system and version (e.g., FreeBSD 4.10.2-REL, Red Hat Linux 9, Digital Unix 4.0a, etc...), web server software and version (e.g., Apache 2.0.48), mail server software and version (e.g., sendmail 8.12.1, postfix-2.1.3, etc...), Mailman version (e.g., 2.1.5), etc.... Please also tell us if any of this software is as installed with the OS version or if it has been upgraded, and if the programs in question were installed as binary packages or if they were installed from source. If the programs were installed as binary packages, please tell us where you got those packages from (e.g., are they from the vendor, or did you get them a third party), etc....

3. Tell us where the software is installed, and where the configuration files are. For the MTA, tell us what anti-spam procedures you are following (e.g., amavisd-new+SpamAssassin+Razor+DCC, crm114, DSPAM, SpamBayes, etc...), what anti-virus processing you are doing (e.g., amavisd-new+ClamAV, Sohpos, NAV, etc...), any black listing/message filtering you are doing within the MTA itself, etc....

4. For the mailman configuration, you may need to provide the contents of the file "mm_cfg.py" below the line that says:

 ##################################################
 # Put YOUR site-specific settings below this line.

However, you don't need to include blank lines or lines that are just comments – all we need to see are the parts that were added which actually define things.

5. Please tell us about your mailing lists – how many users you have, how many lists you have, how active the users are, whether the list is open/closed/moderated, whether or not you have enabled features like +confirm and/or +approve, digest mode, any MIME stripping that is configured, any anti-spam/anti-virus filtering that is done, etc....

6. Be prepared to give us detailed information regarding what is in your mail server logs, what is in your mail queue, etc.... Also be prepared to give detailed information regarding the configuration of your logging system. If you dump all your mail on an outgoing mail server via your provider, you're likely to need their help in determining what they currently have in their queues which you sent. To do this, you'll need to have a large sample of queue-ids and message-ids for them to look for, and you'll need to get that information from your own logs.

See also FAQ entry <4.78 Troubleshooting- No mail going out to lists members>.

With this information, we are much more likely to be able to provide you assistance with your question.

Please turn off any spam-blocking software that requires anyone to jump through hoops to email you.

Converted from the Mailman FAQ Wizard

This is one of many Frequently Asked Questions.

MailmanWiki: DOC/I have a specific-detailed question -- What kind of information do I need to provide when posting a question to this mai (last edited 2015-03-04 06:06:34 by msapiro)