[H-GEN] Problem with general mailing list, I received all general list messages since Feb 5th Overnight

[Bruce Campbell]

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On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Tony wrote:

> Not sure who looks after the general mailing list...but here goes.
> I subscribed to the general list last night.  I check my mail this morning and
> I have been sent all the messages for the general list since Feb 5th 2003.  Is
> this usual practise?  Or is something haywire?

Paragraph 7 of the 'Welcome to the List, here are a few helpful messages;
please save this message!' message that you should have received from
majordomo makes explicit mention of this, in:

        Please note that due to some quirks of the mail system in use,
        you may receive some messages that were sent to the list before
        you received them.  Consider this a 'feature' ;)

How this is occuring is due to how exim (the mail system in use) expands
out a set of addresses.  Every time it retries delivery of the mail, it
re-reads the file for addresses that haven't been delivered to.

Hence, if there is one address in the list that hasn't properly accepted
mail since a given date, any new additions to the list will get a copy of
these messages, as you have seen.  This is considered either a 'bug' or a
'feature', but it usually isn't a 'problem'.

--==--
Bruce.

( And yes, it does seem like its time for a cleanup of the subscribers )




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