/var/spool/mqueue

[Prakash1178]

Hello,

My /var/spool/mqueue contaings approx 5 Lac files.

I want to remove these files but not possible in single shot of command " rm /var/spool/mqueue/*"

If I go for group of 50s files like " rm /var/spool/mqueue/TmAA* .... likewise... its happening...but will take few days /week this way.

Can you please suggest me how can i do this
can I remove complete directory "/var/spool/mqueue" by "rm -rf /var/spool/mqueue"

Regards,

Prakash

[Jeeshan · Accepted solution]

Hi Prakash

Take a look in this thread

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1210745968530+28353475&threadId=1164233

[Rasheed Tamton]

Hi,

/var/spool/mqueue is the directory that mail spools in.

-fuser /var/spool/mqueue/
-stop sendmail (/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop)
-ll -d /var/spool/mqueue/ (note down the permissions)
-rm -rf /var/spool/mqueue/
(it will be faster to delete the dir and recreate it)

recreate the /var/spool/mqueue/ and give the correct permissions, restart the sendmail.

But you need to know and correct the problem of getting such a huge no. of mail queues. That should be the next step.

Regards,
Rasheed Tamton.

[Prakash1178]

Hi,

I tried following loop on my server from the link suggested by you. But its giving message "sh:1: Paramenter not set.
-------------------------------------
for i in `mailq |grep -v Deferred |grep -v mqueue |grep -v - |awk '{print $1}'`
do
rm /var/spool/mqueue/df$i
rm /var/spool/mqueue/qf$i
done

# mailq
/var/spool/mqueue is empty
-----------------------------------

Regards,

Prakash

[Rasheed Tamton]

>My /var/spool/mqueue contaings approx 5 Lac files.
>If I go for group of 50s files like " rm /var/spool/mqueue/TmAA

With such a huge no. of queues and you were trying to remove it manually already, follow my steps for quick resolution.

Regards.

[Prakash1178]

Hi Rasheed,

I felt better to go with your suggestion. Thanks to others for helping hands.

I have already launched "rm /var/spool/mqueue" and started clearing file.

But have lil question. If in case new created directory "/var/spool/mqueue" will miss by chance any right/owner/group, will it creat any major problem for my server functionality.

(FYI : We are not using mail services of our server at all.)

---------------------------------------------

fuser /var/spool/mqueue/
-stop sendmail (/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop)
-ll -d /var/spool/mqueue/ (note down the permissions)
-rm -rf /var/spool/mqueue/
(it will be faster to delete the dir and recreate it)

recreate the /var/spool/mqueue/ and give the correct permissions, restart the sendmail.
---------------------------------------------


Many thanks to All of you.

Reagards,

Prakash

[Rasheed Tamton]

Hi Prakash,
If you do not use mail then it will not affect it. But still it is better to mkdir and chown/mod again back for the above dir, if in case, someone else might use it in the future because the UNIX world supposed to be systematic and professional.

If you are new in the forum, please look assigning points section.

Regards,
Rasheed Tamton.

[Jeeshan]

hi agaian

almost similar thread from you. looks like the anser is here.

[Dennis Handly]

>approx 5 Lac files.

How many is that again??

>Rasheed: (it will be faster to delete the dir and recreate it)

It would be faster to learn the right commands to remove massive quantities, so you don't mess up the directory permissions.
If you just want to remove all of them, you can do:
# find /var/spool/mqueue -type f -exec rm -f {} +

>But you need to know and correct the problem of getting such a huge no. of mail queues.'

Right.

>But its giving message "sh:1: Parameter not set.
for i in `mailq |grep -v Deferred |grep -v mqueue |grep -v - |awk '{print $1}'`

Something is wrong with this line. I have no idea why is it has "-v -"? I'll have to try this at work.

One way to check this is to execute:
mailq | grep -v Deferred | grep -v mqueue | grep -v - | awk '{print $1}'

You are probably getting nothing.

># mailq
/var/spool/mqueue is empty

Well you emptied the queue.

And look at your other thread as mentioned by Ahsan:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1230131

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Messaging/cleaning-var-spool-mqueue/m-p/5108075

[Prakash1178]

Hello Dennis,

I found following message on executing your suggested ( If you just want to remove all of them, you can do:
# find /var/spool/mqueue -type f -exec rm -f +)

I found :
find: -exec not terminated with ";"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can yo uplease tell me what does it mean..

Regards,

Prakash