[Dovecot] Restarting dovecot periodically fails with "Socket already exists: /var/run/dovecot/anvil"

[James Page]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Hello

restarting dovecot regularly fails with version 2.0.13 on Ubuntu 11.10
due to a running child process exiting after the main dovecot process.

Oct 13 15:04:58 ubuntu dovecot: master: Error: service(anvil): Socket
already exists: /var/run/dovecot/anvil
Oct 13 15:04:58 ubuntu dovecot: master: Error: service(anvil): Socket
already exists: /var/run/dovecot/anvil-auth-penalty
Oct 13 15:04:58 ubuntu dovecot: master: Fatal: Failed to start listeners
Oct 13 15:04:58 ubuntu kernel: [11132.825253] init: dovecot main
process (8668) terminated with status 89

The dovecot/anvil process appears to be the cause of the problem
(snapshot of running dovecot processes just after main dovecot process
stops):

root 8418 8080 0 15:02 pts/0 00:00:00 stop dovecot
root 8419 1 0 15:02 ? 00:00:00 dovecot/anvil
root 8422 8420 0 15:02 ? 00:00:00 grep dovecot

This is an Ubuntu specific issue as we use upstart to manage dovecot
which monitors the status of the main dovecot process; the Debian init
script appears to make provision for this happening.

I can work around this in the upstart configuration but it does look
like a potential bug in the sub-process handling in dovecot.

Any help much appreciated - please feel free to comment on
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dovecot/+bug/873390 as well.

Regards

- -- 
James Page
Ubuntu Core Developer

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

dovecot -n

# 2.0.13: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic-pae i686 Ubuntu 11.10
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
managesieve_notify_capability = mailto
managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope
encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric
relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify
environment mailbox date
passdb {
  driver = pam
}
plugin {
  sieve = ~/.dovecot.sieve
  sieve_dir = ~/sieve
}
protocols = imap pop3 sieve
ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem
ssl_cipher_list =
ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2:ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM
ssl_key = </etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem
userdb {
  driver = passwd
}
protocol imap {
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail
  mail_max_userip_connections = 10
}
protocol pop3 {
  mail_max_userip_connections = 10
  pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
}
protocol lda {
  deliver_log_format = msgid=%m: %$
  mail_plugins = sieve
  postmaster_address = postmaster
  quota_full_tempfail = yes
  rejection_reason = Your message to <%t> was automatically rejected:%n%r
}


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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=6Mfk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----