Sendmail Error accessing root mailbox : sendmail

May 17, 2008 10:14am pdt

1. jar3817 19,165
2. Nopius 18,975
3. RaulDias 16,875
4. PsiCop 16,575
5. _jesper_ 10,600
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12. grblades 22,095
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03.12.2008 at 04:22PM PDT, ID: 23237076

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4.8

Sendmail Error accessing root mailbox

Zones: SendMail Email Server, Linux

Tags: sendmail

Dear all,

Please forgive my ignorance. We are using Trixbox 2.2 & FreePBX and CentOS 4.4 is the backbone for it. We are using sendmail and we are now getting an error when try to access the mailbox for root. We do not know what it means and clearly not how to fix it.

This is the text:

HTTP/1.0 500 Perl execution failed Server: MiniServ/0.01 Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:17:57 GMT Content-type: text/html Connection: close
Error - Perl execution failed
sdbm store returned -1, errno 22, key "232000" at boxes-lib.pl line 325, line 689196.

We are using WEBMIN 1.340 and on the mailbox list root is shown like this: root (822.06 MB in 1)

I suspect some kind of corruption and we do not care about the content of the mailbox, just to make it operational again.

Any advice will be highly appreciated.

thanks

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Question Stats

Zone: Software

Question Asked By: phermi

Solution Provided By: Kdo

Participating Experts: 2

Solution Grade: B

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03.12.2008 at 04:31PM PDT, ID: 21111894

Rank: Master

Kdo:

Hi phermi,

errno 22 is an "invalid parameter".

Check that your perl script is generating a valid call to mail, sendmail, etc. You might print the command to stderr/stdout and try to execute it directly.

Good Luck,
Kent

03.12.2008 at 05:00PM PDT, ID: 21112056

phermi:

Kdo,

I have to assume that the same perl script is used to access ALL mailboxes and it only fails with root.

Thanks

03.12.2008 at 05:11PM PDT, ID: 21112112

phermi:

Kdo,

the root file is 862 MB in size. I think that is the problem. Is there a way to purge/delete its contents or even the file and re-create it?

Thanks

03.12.2008 at 05:32PM PDT, ID: 21112204

Rank: Master

Kdo:

Hi phermi,

It's easy to truncate the file. *nix is good that way. :)

echo "" > {path to file}

And the mail system should understand that an empty file is an empty mailbox. I don't expect an issue here.

But I am troubled that the root mailbox is affected while others are not. Can you sign in as root and check the mail? If so, the file size probably isn't the problem, though you can certainly truncate it anyway.

I'm thinking that the root home directory location is the issue. The web server would have most likely done a chroot to change its base path. This path becomes absolute, with the server unable to see any path at a higher point in the directory structure. In linux, user directories are often /home/name, while the root path is /root. The server may not be able to see the /root path. Check your /etc/passwd file to see where the home directory is for root.

And if this is true, it's quite possible that the perl script is passing the expected path to the mailbox file to another process. Since it can't actually get to the root mailbox, the path is illegal and an "illegal argument" status is returned.

Kent

Accepted Solution

03.12.2008 at 05:43PM PDT, ID: 21112259

phermi:

Kdo,

thanks again. problem solved using cat /dev/null > /var/spool/mail/root

03.12.2008 at 08:07PM PDT, ID: 21113012

Rank: Guru

omarfarid:

You can always use

cp /dev/null /var/spool/mail/root

By the way the root mailbox file is a test file and you can always view it.

Assisted Solution

03.13.2008 at 05:34AM PDT, ID: 21115458

Rank: Master

Kdo:

I certainly have no objection to the Asker assigning the points as he sees fit. :)

But I am curious as to the order of the posts. Does an Admin or Moderator know of an issue with the EE forum that would have the request for acceptance precede the suggestion that ultimately solved the issue?

Kent

03.15.2008 at 12:11PM PDT, ID: 21133871

Vee_Mod:

All Concerned (Asker and Experts),

New Feature Alert!

Please do not make any post of any kind after a "Closing Request" has been started by the asker - unless you have a specific objection.

Any post by anyone will stop the automated process and force the manual intervention of a Moderator/Admin.

If anyone has questions about the process, please post them at the "Link to CS-G post:" below my signature.

phermi - Please start the process again and thank you for using it. When we all get used to the process, it will greatly improve the 'abandoned' question problem.
If you have specific responses or posts you need to make, please do so before starting the process again.

Vee_Mod
Experts Exchange Moderator
Link to CS-G post:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Q_23238191.html

03.15.2008 at 12:19PM PDT, ID: 21133911

phermi:

Vee-mod,

I do not understand what are you talking about. I closed the questions and did not make any remarks after that. Please describe to me what is that you want me to do.

Regasrds,

Phermi

03.15.2008 at 12:24PM PDT, ID: 21133925

Vee_Mod:

The comment from Kdo (immediately above my first post) stopped the process.

Please start it again. I can tell that you were trying to "PAQ" the question, but all of your comments were erased by the interruption.

VM

03.17.2008 at 11:37AM PDT, ID: 21144836

phermi:

What do you mean by "start it again"? to make a new post and then what? copy and paste everyone's answers?

Please remove Kdo remarks and let's finish this. I am not willing to re-do anythig. I am sorry.

You got how I wanted the points to go. Just fix it, or get Kdo to fix it himself.

Regards,

03.18.2008 at 04:48AM PDT, ID: 21149943

Vee_Mod:

phermi,
What I meant was for you to start the closing process again.
I'm not a big fan of the new procedures, but it is what it is and we all need to learn how to use it.

<<You got how I wanted the points to go. Just fix it, or get Kdo to fix it himself.>>
1. Actually, the comments you made in the closing process get erased when the process is interrupted - so you are the only one who knows where you wanted the points to go.
2. Yes, I will 'fix it'.
3. Kdo (as a volunteer Expert trying to help you solve your problems) does not have the privileges needed to 'fix it himself'.
4. Have a nice day.

A request has been made in Community Support to close this question:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Q_23238191.html

Note that if you haven't replied to the experts explaining why their solutions were not useful, or explaining why you are no longer looking for a solution, you might not get your refund.

If there are no objections, a moderator will finalize this question in approximately 4 days as follows:
Accept expert comment {http:#a21112204}

Please only post in this question again if you have an objection.

Vee_Mod
Community Support Moderator

03.18.2008 at 07:21AM PDT, ID: 21151248

phermi:

Vee_Mod,

Understood. I do not remember how I distributed the points. If you can provide that info, I will do it again.

Thanks

03.18.2008 at 08:37AM PDT, ID: 21152165

Vee_Mod:

Hi phermi,
One of the problems with the new process is that all of the comments you made when you started to close this question were erased by the 'interrupt'.
The EE site engineers are trying to figure out a way to capture the comments. If they can figure that out, it will make it a lot easier to manually close these interrupted questions.

If you can explain which comment you were trying to use as a 'solution', maybe I can give you a better idea of what to do next.
VM

03.18.2008 at 05:35PM PDT, ID: 21157549

phermi:

Well I remeber giving point to two guys. If I remember correctly 400 for Kent (kdo) and 100 for omarfarid, but I can not be 10% sure. That seems fair though. You wnat me do re-do that?

03.18.2008 at 05:56PM PDT, ID: 21157650

Vee_Mod:

phermi,
In the fifth post above (ID:21112259) you state that you that the problem was solved - before omarfarid even posted.

Based on the pure sequence of posts, all of the points should go to Kdo.

The comment from omarfarid appears to be a modification of what you had already posted - but if it is valuable information that you can use in the future, then you can certainly award some points.

The simplest way to close this out is to click on the "Accept as Solution" if you want to give all of the points to Kdo, or "Accept Multiple Solutions" and put 400 in the comment from Kdo and 100 in the comment from omarfarid.

VM

03.18.2008 at 05:57PM PDT, ID: 21157654

Vee_Mod:

Also - if you are still unsure of exactly how to close this out, just tell me who gets how many points and I can do it for you.
VM

20080236-EE-VQP-29 / EE_QW_2_20070628