Log Messages

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The only logs written by qmail are produced by qmail-send. (The qmail-smtpd logs are really from tcpserver). The errors logged by qmail-send come from itself, qmail-local, or qmail-remote.

qmail-send Messages

Errors logged by qmail-send contain the string "alert:" if the problem is critical or the string "warning:" if the problem is serious but not crippling. Errors of either severity are serious and should be investigated immediately.

Critical problems include the inability to access the qmail home directory, the queue, or the control files; the inability to talk to its helpers: qmail-lspawn, qmail-rspawn, or qmail-clean; and the inability to append to a queue/bounce file. Verify that the directory it's complaining about exists and has the right owner/group/mode. The easiest way to do this is to stop qmail and do make check from the build directory as root.

The message "alert: cannot start: hath the daemon spawn no fire?" means that the communication channels to qmail-lspawn, qmail-rspawn, or qmail-clean weren't set up—perhaps because qmail-start had trouble starting them.

qmail-local Messages

Errors logged by qmail-local are usually temporary and related to permission problems or full file systems (including file systems with space but no free inodes).

Two permanent errors are:

  • This message is looping: it already has my Delivered-To line. (#5.4.6). A looping message is a message delivered twice to the same address—usually due to a dot-qmail forwarding instruction that forwards to an address that forwards it back. Check the Received fields and logs to find the culprit.

  • Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1). This is obvious enough, but sometimes you get this message when you're sure the mailbox exists. Well, you're probably wrong. The problem is usually because of qmail's narrow definition of a valid mail user, as detailed in the qmail-getpw man page and in Chapter 5, "Managing qmail." Typical problems include uppercase characters in the username and home directories not owned by the user.

Tip 

See the "RFC 1893 Status Codes" section later in this appendix for an explanation of the "(#x.x.x)" codes.

Common temporary errors include:

  • Uh-oh: home directory is writable. (#4.7.0).

  • Uh-oh:.qmail file is writable. (#4.7.0).

Both of these errors indicate that either the user's home directory or dot-qmail file is writable by users that the conf-patrn compile-time configuration setting prohibits. (See Chapter 2, "Installing qmail".)

qmail-remote Messages

qmail-remote generates its own messages and relays messages from remote hosts. Remote messages are sent by various MTAs but are usually pretty easy to interpret.

Common qmail-remote error messages include:

  • Sorry, I wasn't able to establish an SMTP connection. (#4.4.1). qmail-remote has not been able to connect to the remote server. Most likely the remote server is down, but it could also indicate a network problem anywhere between the two systems.

  • CNAME lookup failed temporarily. (#4.4.3). qmail-remote tried to look up the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the remote server in the Domain Name System (DNS) and received a temporary error.

  • Sorry, I couldn't find any host by that name. (#4.1.2). Again, qmail-remote was unable to find an IP address. This is a temporary error, so it'll keep trying.

  • Sorry. Although I'm listed as a best-preference MX or A for that host, it isn't in my control/locals file, so I don't treat it as local. (#5.4.6). qmail-remote looked up the IP address for a remote host and found that it was the local host. However, the host wasn't listed in control/locals or the delivery would have been given to qmail-local. Either fix control/locals or your DNS records.



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The Qmail Handbook
The qmail Handbook
ISBN: 1893115402
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 186
Authors: Dave Sill

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