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With ezmlm-idx, you may alter the ezmlm-warn(1) timeout to a number of seconds with the -t seconds switch. The default is 1,000,000 seconds or about 11.6 days. This is the time from the first bounce until ezmlm-warn(1) sends a warning message and the time from the warning message bounce until ezmlm-warn(1) sends a probe (which if bounced leads to removal of the address from the subscriber list). If you have a digest list, remember to execute ezmlm-warn(1) with the -d switch as well.
Decreasing the default to e.g. 5 days will cut in half the average number of files in the bounce directory and the number of messages sent at each crond(8)-directed invocation of ezmlm-warn(1). The trade-off is that worst case, a subscriber may be unsubscribed if his/her mail path is defective for more than twice the timeout. Removing a subscriber after 10 days seems reasonable on a busy list. Do this by adding the -t switch to all the ezmlm-warn(1) invocations. This timeout should be larger than the interval between ezmlm-warn(1) invocation.
To be aggressive, use ‘ezmlm-warn -t0’. This will minimize the time your lists spends servicing bounces, but will for some errors lead to subscribers to be also lead to subscribers being removed if messages to them bounce for two consecutive ezmlm-warn(1) runs. This is useful to rapidly clean up a low quality address collection.