Messages that are retreived from the DLQ have their JMSXDeliveryCount set to 1. Inside org.jboss.ejb.plugins.jms.DLQHander, this leads to the code that redirects failed messages to the DLQ. Starting on line 454, the count gets set to 1, then is decremented to zero. On the next redelivery, the same thing happens again. The JMS_JBOSS_REDELIVERY_COUNT is incremented on each cylce but never gets checked:

try

{ if (msg.propertyExists(PROPERTY_DELIVERY_COUNT)) // Is 1 for a message transferred from DLQ <<<< count = msg.getIntProperty(PROPERTY_DELIVERY_COUNT); }

catch (JMSException ignored)
{
}
if (count > 0)

{ // The delivery count is one too many --count; // Becomes zero for message transferred from DLQ <<< }

else if (msg.propertyExists(JMS_JBOSS_REDELIVERY_COUNT))
count = msg.getIntProperty(JMS_JBOSS_REDELIVERY_COUNT);
else
{
id = msg.getJMSMessageID();
if (id == null)

{ // if we can't get the id we are basically f**ked log.error("Message id is null, can't handle message"); return false; }

count = incrementResentCount(id);
fromMessage = false;
}

if (count > max) // Count is always zero for a message that has been transfered from DLQ <<<<

{ id = msg.getJMSMessageID(); log.warn("Message resent too many times; sending it to DLQ; message id=" + id); sendMessage(msg); deleteFromBuffer(id); handled = true; }

Cheers,
Mike C.