phplist sends out messages via cron but isnt consistent

[dani190]

Hello, i setup a phplist system with about 4000 e-mails. I send out a newsletter daily using rss feeds and cron jobs to do the sending. This whole process is automated, with the cron getting rss, the message being created daily by embargo(or w.e) and then the message getting sent out an hour later.

But latelly iv noticed that phplist decides if it sends the full ammount or not. Like some days it sends out like 500 e-mails only, and other days it sends almost the full 4000 e-mails.

Does anyone know why phplist is so inconsistent?

I know it isnt my cron jobs, as the cron job for sending e-mails runs hourlly, so every hour after it finishes the 450 batch, the cron job for process queue runs again and dose another 450 batch.

Can someone help me out...


Thanks, Dani

[dani190]

anyone?

[dani190]

are you kidding me like i have been waiting days pacientlly while my stupid phplist system doesnt work, now is anyone out there able to help me, i ask again anyone?

[H2B2]

The lack of reactions might perhaps be explained by the lack of more specific info, like:
- your system specifics: version of phplist, php, mysql, type of OS
- the php interface type running on your server (php-cli or php-cgi)
- the way the mailqueue is processed (batch processing? throttle?, domain throttle? etc.)
- the results of the checks you undoubtedly will have made to find the cause of this issue, e.g. did you or your provider change anything in the server setup that might help explain the problem, and which possible explanations did you already explore.
- anything else that might seem relevant to you.
Ref: http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=1994#1994

So I guess that helping others help you, just by providing more specific info, might perhaps help in getting answers.

[dani190]

phplist version: 2.10.4
mysql version: 4.1.21
php version: 4.4.4'
os:linux
php interface type: php-cgi i think
mailqueue: batch processing, with cron job

better?

it is also a shared host maybe that will help

[H2B2]

Good. That's something to start with, but you didn't answer the other questions:

- the way the mailqueue is processed (batch processing? throttle?, domain throttle? etc.)
- the results of the checks you undoubtedly will have made to find the cause of this issue, e.g. did you or your provider change anything in the server setup that might help explain the problem, and which possible explanations did you already explore.
- anything else that might seem relevant to you.

I'll assume that you do not use (domain) throttling, and that nothing has changed in your server setup.

As you are using batch processing -batches of 450 msg/hr- and given that you "think" your server is running php-cgi, it is possible you may have hit a timeout, which is not uncommon with php-cgi setups.

My advice for php-cgi servers:
- Don't use batches but use the throttle setting instead to keep within the 450 messages per hour.
- If you really want to use batch processing, than setup a cron job with the "reload" parameter described in the phplist/cron documentation
- Search the forum for php-cgi and timeouts and/or take another look at the documentation on php interfaces and how to set up a cron job that will take into account the limitations of php-cgi.

Good luck

[dani190]

ok i modified my system so it now sends every 8 seconds meaning 400 messages an hour.

The cron job i am using to run this is:

Visit http://pastebin.ca/376246 for the script wont let me post it here!

(replaced my domain with yourdomainhere.com same with passwords)

Now i run this cron job with the following line:

Code: Select all

/home/YOURUSERHERE/public_html/phplistrun.php

(replaced my user with youruserhere)

and i run it every hour.

Now today it only sent out 450 messages out of my almost 4000 list.

Any ideas on why it is doing this?

am i doing something wrong?

and also everything looks good in the event log

So any ideas?

Any help is appreciated

Thanks, Dani

[H2B2]

This is the php script your cron is running:

Code: Select all

#!/usr/local/bin/php
<?php
  include('http://www.yourdomainhere.com/phplist/admin/?page=processqueue&login=youruserhere&password=yourpasswordhere');
?>

And in theory that should work. Still, why don't you use a direct call to php in your cron, instead of working through a php script?

Are you really sure you disabled batch processing in config.php, i.e.: define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",0);

[dani190]

yes positive, its disabled, what else can i do are there any other cron scripts i can use that should work?

Also i tried to check my php version (like php-cli or php-cgi) and cant i think my fin host got rid of ssh
also is there a posibility it could be the server end? cus a friend whos used this software and works with servers, said its great software, but most of the problems arise from packet losses and shitty servers...

[H2B2]

Server side issues always a possibility, but these are hard to check on a shared host. It is also possible that you are using up to many system resources and that your provider is shutting you down. The best thing to do would be to contact them and discuss the problem.

In the mean time you could still try to setup a direct call to PHP in your crontab file, instead of using a PHP script and see if that improves things.

[dani190]

ok lets see

[dani190]

well im still having problems, yesturday it sent out the full list, today it only sent out 817 and stopped. I kept and eye on it and really nothing out of the ordinary. I have attached my log of today maybe you guys can see something weird.

it is now setup without batach proccessing it sends out a message every 7 seconds.

Any ideas guys?


Thanks, Dani.

[dani190]

anyone this is a really really annoying issue!

[dani190]

absolutely no one can help eh? interesting, i see everyone else's issue being solved all but myn.

im left here helpless trying to figure out why this stupid software wont send out CONSTANTLY and not choose when it wants to send out