Technology Errors

Postfix Error: cannot update mailbox /var/mail/user for user user. error writing message: File too large

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Earlier while troubleshooting an error with PHP’s mail function I noticed an error in the maillog on a CentOS server. I know I have run into this error before and previously I fixed the issue by setting a larger size limit on the Postfix mailboxes. Below is information about the Postfix error in the maillog explaining mail cannot be delivered to a specific user because the mailbox has reached the maximum size allowed as configured in the Postfix main.cf file.

Technology Errors

postfix/smtpd[XXXXX]: fatal: unsupported dictionary type: mysql, Postfix maillog Errors

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I recently updated a development server running CentOS and ran into various minor issues including one regarding postfix being compiled with MySQL support. The development server runs ISPConfig for various virtual hosts and after upgrading all the packages on the server which included Postfix I noticed errors in the maillog. Below I describe what the error was in more detail as well as how it can easily be resolved.

Technology Errors

Cannot Update Mailbox /var/mail/root For User Root. Error Writing Message: File Too Large

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Earlier today while looking into an issue on a CentOS Linux server I noticed an error message in the maillog file. The mail server running on this Linux server is Postfix and it appeared to have been complaining of the size of root’s mailbox located at /var/mail/root. When I first started investigating I figured I was going to see root’s mailbox at a size of 1GB or 2GB but I was surprised when looking into the issue that root’s mailbox was only about 48MB in size so at first I thought there might be another problem. After some digging around in /etc/postfix I figured out that Postfix limits the size of local mailboxes to 51200000 bytes or 48.8MB. Below is information on how I discovered the issue as well as how to modify the size that Postfix limits local mailboxes to.

Technology Errors

Postfix Error: cannot update mailbox /var/mail/root for user root. cannot create file exclusively: No such file or directory

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While working on a project unrelated to Postfix on a CentOS server I noticed an error in the mail logs that indicated an issue with the root users mailbox. I have yet to locate the root cause of the problem however I was able to resolve the problem easily. Below I explain the error in more detail as well as how I was able to resolve the problem with sending email to the root users inbox.

Technology Insights

Clear Out Postfix Queue, Analyze Postfix Email Queue

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Earlier today we had a minor issue on a development server that generated around 175,000 emails dumped into a Postfix queue in a short amount of time. I needed to first analyze the emails and second clear the Postfix queue. Below is information on how to learn more about the emails in the Postfix queue, what domain they are being sent to, and last but not least delete those emails from the queue if they are not needed.