[PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Ben Myers]

Hey Folks,

    Yesterday I pushed tags to the oss.sgi.com xfs git repository and forgot to
    disable the post-receive hook which generates email to the list at commit
    time.  You probably saw the resulting mailbomb.  I'm sorry about that.  In
    order to make sure it doesn't happen again next time, I have applied the
    following patch to our post-receive hook:


--- post-receive-email.xfs	2009-01-16 01:05:09.000000000 -0600
+++ post-receive-email.xfs.tags_disabled	2012-04-11 10:39:30.542537604 -0500
@@ -105,6 +105,9 @@
 			# un-annotated tag
 			refname_type="tag"
 			short_refname=${refname##refs/tags/}
+			# bpm: clear recipients to disable sending email for 
+			# tags.  I just mail bombed the list.  3/11/12
+			recipients=""
 			;;
 		refs/tags/*,tag)
 			# annotated tag
@@ -114,6 +117,9 @@
 			if [ -n "$announcerecipients" ]; then
 				recipients="$announcerecipients"
 			fi
+			# bpm: clear recipients to disable sending email for 
+			# tags.  I just mail bombed the list.  3/11/12
+			recipients=""
 			;;
 		refs/heads/*,commit)
 			# branch


    I've tested it out and it seems to have the desired effect.  So... just a
    heads up, you won't be receiving mail for new tags in the xfs git repo on
    oss.sgi.com.

Regards,
Ben

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Re: [PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Christoph Hellwig]

Looks like a useful change to me.

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Re: [PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Ben Myers]

Hey,

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 04:22:12PM -0400, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> Looks like a useful change to me.

I don't think anyone will really miss the tag notification.  If anyone
really feels otherwise they have the opportunity to say so.  ;)

Thanks,
       Ben

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Re: [PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 4/11/2012 11:26 AM, Ben Myers wrote:
> Hey Folks,
> 
>     Yesterday I pushed tags to the oss.sgi.com xfs git repository and forgot to
>     disable the post-receive hook which generates email to the list at commit
>     time.  You probably saw the resulting mailbomb.  I'm sorry about that.  In
>     order to make sure it doesn't happen again next time, I have applied the
>     following patch to our post-receive hook:

I curse you for the error Ben and praise you for this correction.
Mailman unsubbed me sometime yesterday according to a subject line.
There was no body, no reason give.  But, I know the cause.

I was limiting concurrent SMTP connections to 1 to fight runaway bots.
Was working great until this bombing run.  The OSS list server runs
Sendmail, which is dumb and opens a new connection for every message
delivery.  This behavior can potentially bring an MX to its knees due to
smtpd process starvation.

Postfix on the other hand will open one connection and keep sending
until all mail queued for the destination MX has been sent, or until
there is more than a 2 second delay between deliveries.

I understand Brent Bice of SGI is building an 'evidence file' to justify
a rebuild of OSS to use Postfix and the latest Mailman.  Maybe you could
lend your support or blessing.

The current OSS list server has other problems as well, including large
delays between receiving posts and sending them back out.  I'm assuming
I'm not the only one to notice this.

Thanks.

-- 
Stan

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Re: [PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Russell Cattelan]

[-- Attachment #1.1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3036 bytes --]

On 4/12/12 3:49 AM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> On 4/11/2012 11:26 AM, Ben Myers wrote:
>> Hey Folks,
>>
>>     Yesterday I pushed tags to the oss.sgi.com xfs git repository and forgot to
>>     disable the post-receive hook which generates email to the list at commit
>>     time.  You probably saw the resulting mailbomb.  I'm sorry about that.  In
>>     order to make sure it doesn't happen again next time, I have applied the
>>     following patch to our post-receive hook:
> 
> I curse you for the error Ben and praise you for this correction.
> Mailman unsubbed me sometime yesterday according to a subject line.
> There was no body, no reason give.  But, I know the cause.
> 
> I was limiting concurrent SMTP connections to 1 to fight runaway bots.
> Was working great until this bombing run.  The OSS list server runs
> Sendmail, which is dumb and opens a new connection for every message
> delivery.  This behavior can potentially bring an MX to its knees due to
> smtpd process starvation.
Hmm yes and no.
There was some config issues with with queues on oss that hopefully I
have significantly improved. Sendmail does do connection caching and
will deliver as much mail as possible on the same connection as
possible. The problem was that the queue runnners was set to 400 runners
which was essentially was causing oss to grind itself into the ground
and causing enough delays that most connection caches where probably
timing out.

Also the queue sorting has been changed from the default "priority" sort
which basically will be a time sort in this case to "host" sort which
will try to optimize envelope address delivery. For a mail list server
this should be a significant win since it should be able to better take
advantage of the connection cache. (especially when "tag" bombs happen).

The queue run time has been changed from the default of 30m to 1m which
should cut the mail list delays down significantly.

Changed the drive queue scheduler from cfq to deadline

I've been watching the headers since the change and the turn around
times for mail leaving the originating host to landing in my mail server
is about 1 - 2 min. Occasionally there is a delay on sgi's barracuda box
but that is whole other box of worms.

Please send me any observations  + or - so I know if the tuning is
headed in the right direction.

-Russell

> 
> Postfix on the other hand will open one connection and keep sending
> until all mail queued for the destination MX has been sent, or until
> there is more than a 2 second delay between deliveries.
> 
> I understand Brent Bice of SGI is building an 'evidence file' to justify
> a rebuild of OSS to use Postfix and the latest Mailman.  Maybe you could
> lend your support or blessing.
Heh another can of worms :-)

> 
> The current OSS list server has other problems as well, including large
> delays between receiving posts and sending them back out.  I'm assuming
> I'm not the only one to notice this.
> 
> Thanks.
> 


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Re: [PATCH] disable tags in post-receive hook

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 4/12/2012 11:15 AM, Russell Cattelan wrote:
> On 4/12/12 3:49 AM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
>> On 4/11/2012 11:26 AM, Ben Myers wrote:
>>> Hey Folks,
>>>
>>>     Yesterday I pushed tags to the oss.sgi.com xfs git repository and forgot to
>>>     disable the post-receive hook which generates email to the list at commit
>>>     time.  You probably saw the resulting mailbomb.  I'm sorry about that.  In
>>>     order to make sure it doesn't happen again next time, I have applied the
>>>     following patch to our post-receive hook:
>>
>> I curse you for the error Ben and praise you for this correction.
>> Mailman unsubbed me sometime yesterday according to a subject line.
>> There was no body, no reason give.  But, I know the cause.
>>
>> I was limiting concurrent SMTP connections to 1 to fight runaway bots.
>> Was working great until this bombing run.  The OSS list server runs
>> Sendmail, which is dumb and opens a new connection for every message
>> delivery.  This behavior can potentially bring an MX to its knees due to
>> smtpd process starvation.
> Hmm yes and no.
> There was some config issues with with queues on oss that hopefully I
> have significantly improved. Sendmail does do connection caching and
> will deliver as much mail as possible on the same connection as
> possible. The problem was that the queue runnners was set to 400 runners
> which was essentially was causing oss to grind itself into the ground
> and causing enough delays that most connection caches where probably
> timing out.

I don't use Sendmail so my apologies if I mischaracterized its
features/behavior.  I was merely describing what I was seeing here.  It
seems that description may have been helpful in troubleshooting/tuning
this, and in the end that's what counts.

> Also the queue sorting has been changed from the default "priority" sort
> which basically will be a time sort in this case to "host" sort which
> will try to optimize envelope address delivery. For a mail list server
> this should be a significant win since it should be able to better take
> advantage of the connection cache. (especially when "tag" bombs happen).

Awesome.

> The queue run time has been changed from the default of 30m to 1m which
> should cut the mail list delays down significantly.

Times two.

> Changed the drive queue scheduler from cfq to deadline

And again.

> I've been watching the headers since the change and the turn around
> times for mail leaving the originating host to landing in my mail server
> is about 1 - 2 min. Occasionally there is a delay on sgi's barracuda box
> but that is whole other box of worms.

Anything under 5 minutes, regardless of where any delays are occurring,
seems acceptable in my book, and much better than the previous setup.

> Please send me any observations  + or - so I know if the tuning is
> headed in the right direction.

I sure will Russel.  A short while back when problems hit a threshold
here, I searched the whois records for the appropriate contact and went
from there, ended up working with Brent, who was eager to help if he
could, but made it clear the list had another responsible party/owner.
I guess that would be you. :)

Apologies if I've inadvertently stepped on anyone's toes, asked anyone
to employ a can opener against his will.  I just wanted to bring some
long standing issues to attention and hopefully get them resolved.  It
appears that has happened.

Thanks for addressing these issues Russel.  I'm sure others will be
pleased by your efforts here as well.  Whether the MTA is Sendmail or
Postfix is irrelevant as long as it works properly.

Thanks again.

-- 
Stan

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