strange file .temp.1592374672.P11164Q21M692534.hostname - doveadm altmove

[Aki Tuomi]

> On 01/11/2020 21:13 John Stoffel <john at stoffel.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> >>>>> "Gionatan" == Gionatan Danti <g.danti at assyoma.it> writes:
> 
> Gionatan> Il 2020-11-01 13:23 John Stoffel ha scritto:
> >> How is your "mail_location" defined in your configuration?  And what
> >> is your search term?
> 
> Gionatan> Hi, I just discovered having such strange .temp files on an
> Gionatan> old server of mine.
> 
> I honestly haven't a clue... I don't have these on my server at all.  
> 
> Gionatan> In some folders I have hundred of such files, but they
> Gionatan> really are hardlinks to the same .temp file (for each
> Gionatan> folder), so they do not consume much space. These files
> Gionatan> seems much more common in the Trash folder, but they appear
> Gionatan> even in other folder.
> 
> I would probably just nuke these files, but maybe after confirming
> what their contents really is.  
> 
> Gionatan> An example of a folder with 6 .temp files:
> Gionatan> [root at mail dbox-Mails]# ls -al 
> Gionatan> /var/vmail/domain/user/dbox/mailboxes/INBOX/Trash/dbox-Mails
> Gionatan> drwxr-x---. 2 vmail vmail     4096 Oct 31 12:42 .
> Gionatan> drwxr-x---. 3 vmail vmail     4096 Mar 17  2020 ..
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 1 vmail vmail      512 Oct 29 09:45 dovecot.index
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 1 vmail vmail      392 Oct 28 13:59 dovecot.index.backup
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 1 vmail vmail    55296 Oct 31 12:42 dovecot.index.cache
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 1 vmail vmail    23536 Oct 31 12:42 dovecot.index.log
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602492703.P47358Q0M194142.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602494002.P50402Q0M898232.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602494013.P50446Q0M771524.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602494621.P51761Q0M119496.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602494745.P51954Q0M387071.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 6 vmail vmail 22215889 Oct 12 10:42 
> Gionatan> .temp.1602495419.P53185Q0M671512.hostname
> Gionatan> -rw-r-----. 1 vmail vmail   848909 Oct 29 21:12 u.1623
> 
> Gionatan> 6x 22M files = 128M...
> Gionatan> [root at mail dbox-Mails]# du -hscl .temp.160249*
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602492703.P47358Q0M194142.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602494002.P50402Q0M898232.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602494013.P50446Q0M771524.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602494621.P51761Q0M119496.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602494745.P51954Q0M387071.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602495419.P53185Q0M671512.hostname
> Gionatan> 128M    total
> 
> Gionatan> ...but only 22M really consumed (1 file, 6 hardlinks)
> Gionatan> [root at mail dbox-Mails]# du -hsc .temp.160249*
> Gionatan> 22M     .temp.1602492703.P47358Q0M194142.hostname
> Gionatan> 22M     total
> 
> Gionatan> I never run doveadm altmove; moreover, these .tempo files
> Gionatan> are both old (>1 year) and new (~3 weeks ago). Below you can
> Gionatan> find the output from dovecot -n. Any ideas?
> 
> I really don't know, sorry!  I'd have to got poke at the source to see
> how they're created and where. I don't use dbox, I use Maildir for my
> setup.
> 
> So I suspect (but I'm not sure!) that these are just leftovers from
> mailbox accesses which got left behind.  Try googling for 'dovecot
> dbox temp files' and maybe that will help.  Sorry!
> 
> John

Those files are most likely leftovers due to failed operations, for reasons like crashes. 

Aki