mailq messages ..

[someone_4]

when i run the mailq command I get this output.This is a public mail server for our internet service. The example i have for user@mydomain is a user on our domain change the name to protect the innocent. But That message comes up servel times with the mailq command


NAA23716 226469 Mon Aug 20 13:54 MAILER-DAEMON
(I/O error: Error 0)

MAA23799* (no control file)
NAA08981* (no control file)
NAA04837* (no control file)
MAA26867* (no control file)
OAA11634* (no control file)
MAA26804* (no control file)


I also get this here and there with the mailq command.
(user1@domain.com.mx>... reply: read error from mail2.mps)
(Deferred: Connection reset by otherdomain.com.)
(Deferred: Connection refused by mail.somewhere.com.)

what does all this mean is there a problem with the mail server?

Richard

[linuxfan · Accepted solution]

Hi Richard,

This is explained quite clearly in the document KLTKBRC00005434, so i will just attach the document rather than trying to explain it.

/Begin/

The 'no control file' error and what it means DocId: KLTKBRC00005434 Updated: 1/31/01 3:43:00 PM

PROBLEM

What causes sendmail to produce the (no control file) error when running the
/usr/bin/mailq command?


RESOLUTION

Sendmail Warning: Zero byte qf and df files in the Queue

Discussion:
Terminating (ctrl-c) a sendmail debug session prior to normal completion will
create zero byte 'qf' and/or 'df' files in the queue (the termination of a
session established over port 25 may also rarely cause these files). The
presence of these files may cause alarm and can mislead an administrator into
thinking sendmail is somehow failing.

The /usr/bin/mailq is linked to /usr/sbin/sendmail and actually
perfoms a /usr/sbin/sendmail -bp which produces the following output:

# mailq
Mail Queue (2 requests)
--Q-ID-- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ------------Sender/Recipient------------
RAA23905 (no control file)
RAA23907 (no control file)


The above warning is caused by zero length 'qf' files in the mail queue, for
example . . .

[/var/spool/mqueue] ll
total 4
-rw------- 1 root mail 45 Jan 31 17:21 dfRAA23905
-rw------- 1 root mail 45 Jan 31 17:22 dfRAA23907
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jan 31 17:22 qfRAA23905
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jan 31 17:22 qfRAA23907


Action/Fix:
Sendmail 8.x queue runs should eventually remove the zero byte qf and df
files. However, this process is inconsistent, therefore, manual removal of the
zero byte files may be necessary.

Stop the sendmail daemon, /sbin/init.d/sendmail stop, remove any zero
byte qf and/or df files that exist in /var/spool/mqueue, and restart
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start.

/End/

-Regards
Ramesh

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Usually when sendmail establishes a connection with the remote sendmail and yet to receive the data, it shows up as no control file in the mailq this the operation completes. On a busy server, you see it all the time. If you keep on seeing the queue constant with the same queue ids, then there could be a problem with the originating end which could be due to abnormal termination. They can be simply removed with rm command. But before doing so you should pay little extra attention otherwise cause the other mails to be deleted.

-Sri

[someone_4]

Hey guys I deleted some files and my mailq is not empty. But I do an ll in var/spool/mqueeu
and I see some old files as below. Should I delete them too?


total 112
-rw------- 1 root mail 825 Apr 14 07:19 QfEAA26256
-rw------- 1 root mail 798 Apr 14 08:20 QfIAA12029
-rw------- 1 root mail 798 Apr 14 08:51 QfIAA21463
-rw------- 1 root mail 798 Apr 14 09:21 QfJAA00450
-rw------- 1 root mail 798 Apr 14 09:52 QfJAA09807
-rw------- 1 root mail 798 Apr 14 10:22 QfKAA19151
-rw------- 1 root mail 797 May 2 12:26 QfMAA09216
-rw------- 1 root mail 797 May 2 12:05 QfMAA14726
-rw------- 1 root mail 797 May 2 12:56 QfMAA18297
-rw------- 1 root mail 796 May 2 13:57 QfNAA07363
-rw------- 1 root mail 796 May 2 13:26 QfNAA27398
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 9 01:08 TfBAA17594
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 14:41 TfHAA03263
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 09:29 TfJAA05731
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 13:36 TfNAA03560
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 13:44 TfNAA09892
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 13:45 TfNAA10586
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 13:24 TfNAA18930
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 20:14 TfNAA22343
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 20:14 TfNAA25289
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 14:49 TfOAA01160
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 15:36 TfOAA06370
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 14:39 TfOAA13648
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 14:48 TfOAA24951
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 15:19 TfPAA05454
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 15:33 TfPAA10926
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 15:29 TfPAA18531
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 15:29 TfPAA21876
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 15:33 TfPAA29167
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 15:36 TfPAS21879
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 16:17 TfQAA09273
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 2 16:17 TfQAA26952
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 17:39 TfTAA12662
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 20:08 TfUAA01947
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 20:44 TfUAA04407
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 20:55 TfUAA05760
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 18 20:13 TfUAA12791
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 20:46 TfUAA27433
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 21:55 TfVAA12969
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 21:51 TfVAA15884
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 21:54 TfVAA18605
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Jul 17 21:27 TfVAA28691
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 8 22:38 TfWAA29697
-rw------- 1 root mail 6909 Aug 27 09:37 dfJAA08460
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 27 09:35 dfPAA17076
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 27 09:37 qfJAA08459
-rw------- 1 root mail 865 Aug 27 09:37 qfJAA08460
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 27 09:37 xfJAA08459
-rw------- 1 root mail 0 Aug 27 09:37 xfJAA08460
(lvapp13) /var/spool/mqueue#

[Kevin Wright]

I would do a less on these files as they are probably mail messages to people in your company..check them out before you delete them, or copy them to another location before clearing you mailq.

[linuxfan]

Hi Richard,

what you could do is stop sendmail, move
dfJAA08460 and qfJAA08460 (if you don't care about these then you can delete everything). Everything else is 0 bytes so its ok to delete them. and then restart your sendmail.

-Regards
Ramesh

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

You can certainly delete all the ones that have
zero bytes and with old time stamp.

You can also delete the ones that have old time stamp. But I would check the qf file to see where it's been addressed.

-Sri

[Dave Kelly_1]

Where you have files beginning with Qf (as opposed to qf), this means that for some reason sendmail couldn't "trust" the contents of the file.

This is logged in the mail.log file. If you search for "Losing", you are likely to find out what caused the problem.