[ic] 'Unable to send mail' - ongoing issue

[Daniel Browning]

* Jon Jensen <jon at endpoint.com> [2005-01-04 17:22]:
> On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Ed LaFrance wrote:
> 
> >I've just started working on a new client's system, and I see they are 
> >plagued with a problem that I have observed on a myriad of other 
> >installations. Namely, various emails sent by Interchange occasionally do 
> >not go out. The failed sends can be found in the catalog error log, 
> >preceded by the string 'Unable to send mail using (sendmail or similar)'. 
> >I have seen order reports, customer receipts, contact messages and more 
> >email types fail in this manner, sent by both email UserTags and 
> >Interchange's internal mailing routines. I've seen this on Red Hat, 
> >Debian, FreeBSD, and Solaris systems - maybe more, but those are the ones 
> >that come to mind. In all cases, the systems have plenty of available RAM, 
> >disk space and CPU resources.
> >
> >In one case I hacked the source a bit to capture some system error info to 
> >the catalog error.log, and the system said the cause was a 'broken pipe'. 
> >This was only on one system, so I don't know if that holds true for all 
> >cases.
> 
> Ed,
> 
> That sounds like the classic Perl signals problem to me. Have you tried 
> the remedies previously discussed on the list, of MaxServers 0 in 
> interchange.cfg and PERL_SIGNALS=unsafe in the environment?

[Continuing a very old thread]

I periodically get this problem on one catalog.  I have been running PreFork
with PERL_SIGNALS=unsafe the whole time.  It occurs during heavy system load.
This is on a Red Hat Enterprise 3 Dual 2 ghz with 2GB ram and a fast RAID. Perl
5.8.3, 5.8.4, and 5.8.5 all seem to experience the issue.  It has occurred about
1-2 times per month for the last six months.

-- 
Daniel Browning <db at kavod.com> - Kavod Technologies.  Random Fortune:
"Every morning, I get up and look through the 'Forbes' list of the
richest people in America.  If I'm not there, I go to work"
		-- Robert Orben