flexfax: Summary: Big problem with sendfax

[Willis Gregory <tacedi@series2000.com>]

My original posting is below.

Nico Kadel-Garcia came to my rescue immediately and advised that the 
problem was probably in my script.     To clean up the mess I had created, 
he advised me to go in by hand to the $SPOOLDIR/doneq and $SPOOLDIR/docq 
directories and rip out the files there.  I did this.  As I recall, I also 
ended up deleting files from sendq before I finally got things normal again.

He was right that the problem was in my script.  The files were being ftp'd 
from a non-Linux box not running hylafax to a directory on my Linux fax 
server.  However, the script on the other end did not recognize that the 
files had not been delivered and kept resending them.    The script on the 
Linux fax server then kept running sendfax on each file which it found in 
this directory.

I corrected the logic on the non-Linux box to recognize when a file had 
been delivered, and added some logic on the Linux server to not sendfax a 
file which had been previously received.  Through subsequent testing, I 
learned that the status "Blocked by concurrent job" means that another job 
is going to the same phone number (my duplicates).

My system is a Dell 600 mhz workstation PIII with 256MB RAM.  My root 
directory, which holds the /var/spool/fax directory, had 3GB of free space, 
and the directory where I was receiving the incoming files, /usr/fax, had 6 
GB free.  The problem did not appear to be a disk limitation.  Since my fax 
software appeared to hang at about 240 JIDS, I assume it is a memory 
limitation at this point.

One thing I would like to see in future Hylafax releases is a faster way to 
clean up the server when idiots like me screw up and need to start 
over.  Faxrm didn't work at all at that point.

Thanks again.

Willis Gregory
tacedi@series2000.com

 >>I downloaded hylafax-4.1beta2.tar.gz and loaded it on a Dell running Red 
Hat 6.0.  I'm using a MultiTech MT2834ZDXb modem.  I'm only using it to fax 
outgoing  reports.
 >>After trying it successfully with a few outgoing faxes, I turned on the 
flood gate and sent all of my outgoing faxes to the Hylafax server.  A 
shell file runs sendfax on each file ftp'd to the received directory of the 
Linux server.
 >>Now hylafax is totally backed up.  If I try to run sendfax manually, it 
totally blocks and won't queue the fax.
 >>When I do "faxstat -s", I get a large list.   Many of the JID's appear 
to duplicates to the same phone number.   The status line at the top says 
"Modem ttyS0:  Waiting for modem to come ready.  Of the approx. 240 JID's 
in the -s output, all but about 10 have a status of "Blocked by concurrent 
job".  Ten have a blank status.
 >>How do I tell what the "current job" is so I can kill it?  Is there a 
maximum number of outgoing faxes in the queue which prevents sendfax from 
taking any new requests?
 >>The modem itself is not doing anything at the present time.  I rebooted 
the system and turned the modem off, but the modem is still doing nothing.
 >>When I did "faxrm" on the first JID listed in "sendfax -s", it 
blocked.  Finally broke out after nearly 30 minutes.  Is there a  way to 
clean up the entire send queue?
 >>If I do "faxstat -d", it also shows a large list, with most of the JID's 
"Blocked by concurrent job".  I thought -d showed completed jobs.  Why 
would they be shown as completed if they were blocked?
 >>Help.
 >>Willis Gregory