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

[Dominic Hargreaves]

Control: tags -1 + moreinfo

On Wed, Jul 10, 2019 at 11:24:05AM +0200, Sergio Gelato wrote:
> 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.

Hi Sergio

Sorry for the long silence - as I'm no longer using RT myself, I'm
not keeping as up to date with the bug list as I should.

The change you've proposed is quite a philosophical change to how
RT handles mail and I'd want to see this discussed and ideally
merged upstream before considering in Debian. Is this still an
issue for you? If so would you consider bringing it up on
https://forum.bestpractical.com/ or their bugtracker?

Cheers
Dominic