[request-tracker-maintainers] Bug#931772: RT: On Create scrip ran but ticket not created

[Sergio Gelato]

Package: request-tracker4
Version: 4.4.1-3+deb9u3

I've run into the following problem when submitting a ticket with a large
binary attachment. An On Create scrip is triggered (as configured for the
queue) and sends e-mail with a copy of the attachment, but in the process
the web server times out (40 seconds is the mod_fcgid default) and the
ticket creation fails, resulting in there being no entry in table TICKETS
in the database for the ticket number mentioned in the e-mail. (Also, the
attachment is truncated in the outgoing e-mail, but this is a lesser
concern.)

That it should take so long for the scrip to complete is not the object of
this bug report (see #931769 for that). My complaint here is about the
confusion created by sending out e-mail that refers to a nonexistent ticket.

I think I would prefer for the ticket to be created and the scrip
not to complete (e-mail delivery can fail for other reasons anyway) than
the opposite. Also, if the ticket is created by the mail gateway the
gateway should consume the incoming message once the ticket is created,
even if scrips haven't been run. In the original incident the incoming
mail remained in the queue, causing a new e-mail to be sent on each
delivery attempt (they all failed for the same reason). Scrip failure
should of course be reported to the system administrator, but it seems
less useful to mailbomb either the requestor or (as in my incident) the
AdminCcs for the queue.