[rt-users] Mail Loop Prevention - Custom scrips? - AutoReplySquelch? - Procmail?

[Mike Patterson]

Problem Summary:
Our RT 3.0.6 (FreeBSD 4.8, Sendmail) build occassionally gets in 
correspondence loops with vacation messages.

Problem Details:
In our organization we are currently using GroupWise 5.5 which has poor 
vacation  message handling.
The loop adds additional correspondence to an existing ticket (as 
opposed to creating new tickets by messing up the subject line).
Typically it is someone who is a Requestor or AdminCc for a queue who 
gets in the loop when someone corresponds to a ticket they
are involved. with.

Possible Solutions (feedback needed)?:
I used AutoReplySquelch for RT 2.x is there a corresponding add-on for 
RT3.x?
If not are there any other parameters I can set as to how many messages 
to send in a period of time for a user?
Can I add parameters to Scrip Templates to not generate correspondence 
mail if it matches strings in the subject line that look like vacation 
messages?

What I tried:
I set up procmail to aim messages with "vacation" in the subject line 
via rt-mailgate a queue that does not have any scrips.
This would work for new tickets, but existing tickets in other queues, 
still follow their own scrips
For example:
  I have ticket #1277 in the "General" queue (which emails 
correspondence to AdminCcs and Requestors).
Someone corresponds to #1277
The Requestor's mail agent replies:  RE: [MYCOMPANY.COM #1277] I'm on 
Vacation .
The procmail recipe sends this ticket to mailgate with "temp" instead of 
"general"
However since the ticket already exists in the general queue, it sends 
email continuing the loop.

###BTW here is how I setup procmail that could be used  for other  RT 
filtering ###
####This is based on previous posts.  I just noticed 3.0 procmail notes 
here:
####http://www.fsck.com/pub/rt/contrib/3.0/rt_procmail.html

#on FreeBSD install from port
/usr/ports/mail/procmail ; make ; make install

#add to /etc/aliases then run "newaliases":
rt: "|/usr/local/bin/procmail -m /etc/procmailrcs/rt"

% mkdir /etc/procmailrcs
#create /etc/procmailrcs/rt

#this must be owned by root
HOME=/home/rt3
INCLUDERC=$HOME/.procmailrc

#are we still here after including? Dump it to someone
:0
! myusername at myhostname.com

##create empty file /home/rt3/procmail.log
#############create rules in  /home/rt3/.procmailrc
         # This file does any filtering/mail manipulations/etc before
         # calling rt-mailgate.

         HOME=/home/rt3
         LOGFILE=procmail.log
         VERBOSE=no

         #Vacation Message Check
         #send to queue "temp" which does not generate send emails out
         :0
         * ^Subject.*\(V|v)action\*
         {
           :0 :.procmail.lock
           |/usr/local/rt3/bin/rt-mailgate --queue temp --action 
correspond --url http://myhostname.com/rt3/
           # Something went wrong.  Dump it to someone
           :0e
           ! myusername at mycompany.com
         }

         # a last-ditch filter.
         :0
         {
           :0 :.procmail.lock
         |/usr/local/rt3/bin/rt-mailgate --queue general --action 
correspond --url http://mycompany.com/rt3/
         # Something went wrong.  Dump it to someone
           :0e
           ! myusername at mycompany.com
         }