topic Re: /var/spool/mqueue in Operating System - HP-UX

/var/spool/mqueue

TwoProc — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:35:46 GMT

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

I've got stuff in here that's really old.

Can I just (for example) :

#cd /var/spool/mqueue
#find . -mtime +45 | xargs rm

???

If not, why not? What problems does it cause?

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

Geoff Wild — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:46:52 GMT

Sure!

I do this from my linux server:

/usr/bin/find /var/spool/mqueue/ -mtime 1 |xargs rm -f {}; > /tmp/cleanmqueue.cron.log 2>&1

I get a few errors in the maillog - file not found...

You could stop sendmail, do your find, then start sendmail.

Rgds...Geoff

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

TwoProc — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:57:30 GMT

Thank you Geoff - much appreciated.

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

Dennis Handly — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:26:56 GMT

Or you can manually edit those files and correct any bad addresses and send them on. ;-)

The files come in pairs, one is headers and the other is the message.

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:33:27 GMT

Shalom,

This process as defined will cause no problems.

A complete delete will possibly hammer mail messages in progress, generating error messages in maillog.

SEP

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

Sam McKnight — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:59:06 GMT

Most messages stay in mqueue a very short time unless they can't be delivered. You might examine some of the messages that have been there for a while to determine what they are. If it is nothing you want to keep, delete them.

Last summer, just before I was leaving on vacation, my mail server was subjected to a denial-of-service attack where it was receiving tens of thousands of messages a day. In desperation, I set up a cron process that emptied mqueue every hour. By examining the mail received during the period I was away, it appeared that I lost few,if any, valid incoming messages through the sledge hammer approach.

Regards,

Sam

Re: /var/spool/mqueue

TwoProc — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:46:38 GMT

Thanks Dennis, Steven & Sam.

I always appreciate the fine expert help.

I just didn't want to start having problems getting current "good" mail out of the server b/c I made the list of mail to be sent go into a "spaz" just b/c I felt like housecleaning...

I've cleaned up and everything is still running smoothly.

Happy New Year!

John