[Mimedefang] Mimedefang errors: What might be the cause?

[Kris Deugau]

Jan Pieter Cornet wrote:
> The original poster also mentioned:
> 
>>>define(`confDELAY_LA', `2')dnl
> 
> Ouch. It might be instructive to read some sendmail source that is
> related to DelayLA... sendmail not only delays for one second after
> each command, but also sleeps N seconds before accept()ing each new
> connection, where N is the number of listening ports.

Yep.  I haven't read the source and I don't recall anything WRT extra 
padding for multiple ports, but I'm aware of that backoff.  That was 
very deliberate;  I *do* *not* want to reach RefuseLA on that box 
because doing so will cause customer phone calls complaining that they 
can't send email.  :(  At the time I was tuning that system, new 
hardware was Not An Option, and since then the general load has dropped.

It kept mail flowing - albeit slowly...  even during a minor spam storm, 
or during one of the other "make Kris unhappy" events that bit that machine.

"All" that does is to slow down the operation of sending email;  under 
the (legitimate) usage and with the marginal hardware available, that 
was preferable to rejecting customer SMTP connections.  I don't think I 
even hit that limit very hard ever;  and even now about the only things 
likely to hit it are spammers and their ratware.  <g>

-kgd