Greetings,

I have a PERL script running on a COBALT RAQ4 server. This script
sends a text newsletter to subscribers. Subscribers' email addresses
are stored in MySQL database. So this script reads the list of
subscribers email addresses then sends the newsletter email using
Sendmail. This newsletter is sent once a week.

Occasionally (once every 3-4 weeks), the newsletter subscribers
receive multiple copies (2-4) of the newsletter email (about 1 minute
apart).

Why is this happening and how can it be fixed?

Thanks in advance.

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Request for Question Clarification by netcrazy-ga on 06 May 2004 12:55 PDT

Hello,
To answer your question, I'll need the following details.

1. Are you running this as cron job? If yes, then I need details about that cron.
2. If possible, I'd like to see that perl script too. 

Did you start seeing this behavior recently or it is from day 1 when
this script was put on the server ?

Let me know.

Thanks
netcrazy-ga

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Clarification of Question by ksoufi-ga on 06 May 2004 13:48 PDT

Greetings,

Thanks for your help.

The script is run from a button on an HTML webpage. This button calls
the script which resides in the CGI-BIN directory.

This problem started to occur recently (every once in a while). No
changes to the script since it was developed three years ago. What is
changing is the number of subscribers (increasing) and the number of
invalid email addresses in the list.

Thanks again

Hi there,

I think more information will be necessary for an appropriate answer to be given.
I would need to see the code in question in order to give you any kind
of definite answer.
Offhand, the reasons I can think of are:
A problem with the scheduling script, that causes it to run multiple
times in certain circumstances.
A problem with the system timer.
A problem with the database query, that somehow returns multiple
copies of each address.
A problem with the script itself, that causes it to loop over the addresses.
A problem with the submission of the newsletter itself, that it is
submitted multiple times by accident.

There are certainly things that can be done to test each one of these,
but describing in detail how to test for all possible causes of the
problem, would be beyond the scope of this question, and problem of
Google Answers entirely.

Greetings,

Thank you for your help.

The script is run manually (pressing a button on an HTML webpage). So
there is no scheduling script.

There are many invalid email addresses in the list. We try to remove
them but there are always new ones.

The script has been working for the last three years. It is recently
(in the last three months) that we started experiencing this problem.

Thanks again