mailq

[Tan Shirley]

Hi,

Anyone ever encountered mailq which displayed the mail with a size of -1 ?

For example
--Q-ID-- --Size-- -Q-Time- --Sender/Recipient-
JAA27164* -1 Wed Sep 3 09:40 root
user@abc.com


Thanks !

[Steven Gillard_2]

That will happen if someone removes df* files from the /var/spool/mqueue directory without removing the corresponding qf* files. Sendmail (mailq) stats the df* file to get the size - if this file doesn't exist it reports -1.

If you remove qfJAA27164 from /var/spool/mqueue (or wherever sendmails queue directory is) that item will no longer appear on the mailq output.

Make sure all files corresponding to a mail message are deleted when doing cleanup in this directory.

Regards,
Steve

[Tan Shirley]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your prompt reply!
However, according to my colleague, he sent the mail and immediately issued the mailq command several times. No manual deletion of any files.
Any other possibilities?
Thanks !

Regards,
Shirley

[Steven Gillard_2]

A few other questions / thoughts:

* How was the mail message sent? Did it have a valid body? Is this problem happening on all messages?

* Any full file systems?

* Any errors in /var/adm/syslog/mail.log?

Regards,
Steve