[Dovecot] Disconnected: Too many invalid IMAP commands
Greetings, I'm having big issues here, hope you can help me…
Ubuntu Server 8.04, postfix 2.5.1, dovecot 1.0.10, postfixadmin (MySQL+ virtual users)…
I am trying to move e-mails from an old IMAP account to my new dovecot IMAP server accounts. The old server is EIMS (Eudora Internet Mail Server, so a sort of mbox format)… I move messages by drag 'n' dropping in Mozilla Thunderbird.
No problems with messages under 4MB size (there are huge messages, up to 25MB), but as soon as I try to move messages from 4MB and up, the connection hangs, nothing happens, the application becomes barely responsive, I have quit and re-open it to make it behave properly.
In the logs, I read (user and IPs are fake, here):
Sep 18 07:52:06 in dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<user@my-domain>, method=PLAIN, rip=123.123.123.123, lip=123.123.123.123 Sep 18 07:52:06 in dovecot: IMAP(user@my-domain): Disconnected: Too many invalid IMAP commands.
Could it be a client (Thunderbird) issue? I have tried with Apple Mail 4.1, same problem, same logs.
Could it be a quota limit (googling around, I read that sometimes the error may be triggered by dovecot when exceeding the quota limit) Accout usage is actually at 1%…
Could drag 'n' drop be the wrong way to have things done? I have also downloaded the huge e-mails from EIMS to Thunderbird Local Folders, the problem arises when I try to upload, so the culprit seems to be the new "system".
I really need help at this point… any hints?
Thanks in advance for any help you will offer.
Gabriele
On 9/18/2009, Gabriele (listarolo_dovecot@musimac.it) wrote:
dovecot 1.0.10
This is really old... it is very likely that upgrading dovecot to a more current build - either 1.1.19, or better, 1.2.5 - will solve your problem, but would be recommended anyway...
--
Best regards,
Charles
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 06:12 -0400, Charles Marcus wrote:
On 9/18/2009, Gabriele (listarolo_dovecot@musimac.it) wrote:
dovecot 1.0.10
This is really old... it is very likely that upgrading dovecot to a more current build - either 1.1.19, or better, 1.2.5 - will solve your problem, but would be recommended anyway...
I think it should be plastered all over the list welcome message and homepage, as many projects do and insist upon, " make sure you are running the latest current stable version of the software before asking for help"...
The problem however is many people very dangerously and wrongly consider that their beloved favourite distro package, is in fact the current stable and the only one that exists. I'm horrified by the number of people responsible for servers that wont use anything but an rpm or a deb, they simply refuse to use the source, even though its current and stable, far more so than that rpm/deb file at like 3 years out of date, and they have the nerve to get narky at you for not helping them *sigh*
Noel Butler schrieb:
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 06:12 -0400, Charles Marcus wrote:
dovecot 1.0.10 This is really old... it is very likely that upgrading dovecot to a more current build - either 1.1.19, or better, 1.2.5 - will solve your
On 9/18/2009, Gabriele (listarolo_dovecot@musimac.it) wrote: problem, but would be recommended anyway...
I think it should be plastered all over the list welcome message and homepage, as many projects do and insist upon, " make sure you are running the latest current stable version of the software before asking for help"...
The problem however is many people very dangerously and wrongly consider that their beloved favourite distro package, is in fact the current stable and the only one that exists. I'm horrified by the number of people responsible for servers that wont use anything but an rpm or a deb, they simply refuse to use the source, even though its current and stable, far more so than that rpm/deb file at like 3 years out of date, and they have the nerve to get narky at you for not helping them *sigh*
Gabriele,
to the original problem, I'd suggest to capture a trace of IMAP commands, either on the server, or by setting proper Thunderbird options, as described on http://wiki.dovecot.org/Debugging/Thunderbird and post the last few lines before the problem mail.
No\"{e}l, I don't think such findings belong here.
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server five years), and it's natural that users will use that.
Perhaps it should be made sure that distributors actually request that support inquiries be directed at themselves, rather than the upstreams. Ubuntu in particular however are severely undermanned and will hardly be able to go beyond security and perhaps the occasional critical erratum, and they often cannot even be bothered to look at reports and forward them upstream (be that Debian or the OSS project) -- I've been through that with bogofilter and fetchmail before (where I'm a/the upstream maintainer, respectively).
I also think that telling users "backport fix abc239def" might help (if available) because that stands a slight chance of being integrated in the distro package.
HTH
On 9/18/2009, Matthias Andree (matthias.andree@gmx.de) wrote:
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server five years), and it's natural that users will use that.
It is also natural that critical servers should always be running the latest stable release of critical applications, of course after a short but suitable internal testing cycle...
I have never understood anyone who would use a distro for critical applications that forces them to use 3+ year old software.
--
Best regards,
Charles
Quoting Charles Marcus <CMarcus@Media-Brokers.com>:
On 9/18/2009, Matthias Andree (matthias.andree@gmx.de) wrote:
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server five years), and it's natural that users will use that.
Yes.
It is also natural that critical servers should always be running the latest stable release of critical applications, of course after a short but suitable internal testing cycle...
No. It may be desirable, but it isn't always "natural". And sometimes it is problematic (if the latest stable version removed a feature you need, or changed in such a way that it isn't desirable, etc).
BUT, they should ALWAYS be running the latest version IF there is a SECURITY issue with the older versions, UNLESS the security patch(es) have been back-ported and applied properly...
I have never understood anyone who would use a distro for critical applications that forces them to use 3+ year old software.
Because it is stable and just plain works, of course. If it fully meets your needs, why would you update? Updating only for the reason of updating is silly. Why update if that doesn't buy you anything? And since updating can actually CAUSE problems, sometimes you are better of not doing so...
Besides, it's not like these distro's don't update them for security patches and/or bug fixes (by back-porting).
This doesn't mean the OP should or shouldn't upgrade, it just means that some people should, and others shouldn't, and each case has to be taken on its own merits.
-- Eric Rostetter The Department of Physics The University of Texas at Austin
This message is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Use this message at your own risk.
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 11:11 -0500, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
I have never understood anyone who would use a distro for critical applications that forces them to use 3+ year old software.
Because it is stable and just plain works, of course.
Oh what rubbish, ubuntu released a brand new version of their distribution, cant recall if it was 8.04 or 8.10, with MailScanner, which never worked, not only was it I think years old version, it was just made a deb and inserted as a "stable" package, which never ran or was it ever going to with how it was packaged, so please don't sit there and spin that rot that debian associated people also do.
IMHO, if you want to use a distros version of package X, then you accept ALL of the risks that go with it, and you should NEVER ask for help on the upstreams site and the projects I'm involved with will either ignore you, or tell you to go to the distro for help. If package maintainers insist on doing things like this, then they accept full responsibility for it, adn who are they to decide a version 3 yo is more stable than the one released last week.
Quoting Noel Butler <noel.butler@ausics.net>:
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 11:11 -0500, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
I have never understood anyone who would use a distro for critical applications that forces them to use 3+ year old software.
Because it is stable and just plain works, of course.
Oh what rubbish
No... Really, I've got lots of machines on older distros (3+ years) that are just plain stable and just plain work.
Note there is nothing forcing me to stay with their old dovecot version either, just because I want to use their old distro. Your assertion is just plain wrong, not to mention biased.
ubuntu released a brand new version of their distribution,
Which distribution? LTS, or desktop, or server, or another?
cant recall if it was 8.04 or 8.10,
Well, that's helpful... Since the current LTS is 8.04, it better not be 8.10 you are talking about... Because that isn't an LTS version...
with MailScanner, which never worked, not only was it I think years old version, it was
I doubt it was years old at the release of the LTS version, though often it is a version or two behind due to production timelines and overlaps.
In any case, I know of several people who are _VERY_ happy with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and MailScanner... So personally, I don't put a lot of stock in your vague claims without even specific version numbers to back you up.
just made a deb and inserted as a "stable" package, which never ran or was it ever going to with how it was packaged, so please don't sit there and spin that rot that debian associated people also do.
I have never ran debian, so I won't spin any rot that debian people do. But I do run long-term support distros of linux, so I will spin the appropriate rot as needed.
IMHO, if you want to use a distros version of package X, then you accept ALL of the risks that go with it
Sure, you AND the distro provider, assuming the distro provider offers support. In the case of a LTS version, that is of course implied (and should be true, as long as they don't go out of business).
and you should NEVER ask for help on the upstreams site
I see no reason not to ask, but I also believe:
- You _should_, though don't have to, ask the distro support first, as that is why you run a LTS distro and in many cases pay for the LTS support.
- The upstream site support has the right to refuse service, and send you to the distro support, or recommend you upgrade, etc.
and the projects I'm involved with will either ignore you, or tell you to go to the distro for help.
I hope I don't use any software from a project that ignores me! If I was ignored for any project I requested help from, I'd surely find another project instead...
If package maintainers insist on doing things like this, then they accept full responsibility for it, adn who are they to decide a version 3 yo is more stable than the one released last week.
So what's your point?
BTW, I run dovecot on two servers; one is 1.1.5 and the other is 1.2.4. Timo has always supported me fully on each. But since each is not the current stable version, I guess I don't have a clue what I'm doing and I guess Timo is wrong for supporting me -- at least from your point of view? That is what your emails say at least...
-- Eric Rostetter The Department of Physics The University of Texas at Austin
This message is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Use this message at your own risk.
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 16:26 -0500, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
No... Really, I've got lots of machines on older distros (3+ years) that are just plain stable and just plain work.
until they are owned.
cant recall if it was 8.04 or 8.10,
Well, that's helpful... Since the current LTS is 8.04, it better not be 8.10 you are talking about... Because that isn't an LTS version...
shouldn't matter, either way, if its included it should be assumed to at least half work
with MailScanner, which never worked, not only was it I think years old version, it was
I doubt it was years old at the release of the LTS version, though often it is a version or two behind due to production timelines and overlaps.
In any case, I know of several people who are _VERY_ happy with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and MailScanner... So personally, I don't put a lot of stock in your vague claims without even specific version numbers to back you up.
please do not take my word for it, I insist you dont, read the mailscanner archives
I have never ran debian, so I won't spin any rot that debian people do.
errrrr you seem to think the world shines out of ubuntu's ass, but dont realise that ubnuntu follows the same policies and principles of debian, even to the point that the vast majority of the ubuntu package maintainers , maintain the debian versions.
thank christ you dont work for me, I dont tolerate idiots who do such things, I feel sorry for your employer.
Quoting Noel Butler <noel.butler@ausics.net>:
No... Really, I've got lots of machines on older distros (3+ years) that are just plain stable and just plain work.
until they are owned.
Not a one has been owned yet. And why would they be since there are regular security updates, and of course out-of-band security updates for critical issues.
I have never ran debian, so I won't spin any rot that debian people do.
errrrr you seem to think the world shines out of ubuntu's ass, but dont
Nope. You seem to have no clue what you are talking about.
realise that ubnuntu follows the same policies and principles of debian,
I've never run ubuntu, nor debian. Stop assuming stupid assumptions.
even to the point that the vast majority of the ubuntu package maintainers , maintain the debian versions.
Since ubuntu is a debian derivative, this would be normal. I don't run either, so not a problem.
Anyway, this is way off topic, so end of thread for me...
-- Eric Rostetter The Department of Physics The University of Texas at Austin
This message is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Use this message at your own risk.
ahh just found this in my spam folder.. maybe it has good judgement
On Sun, 2009-09-20 at 21:22 -0500, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
Quoting Noel Butler <noel.butler@ausics.net>:
No... Really, I've got lots of machines on older distros (3+ years) that are just plain stable and just plain work.
until they are owned.
Not a one has been owned yet. And why would they be since there
famous last words, the last idiot to give me this rot was unemployed 30 seconds later, i dont tolerate incompetent lazy fools
Am 18.09.2009, 16:57 Uhr, schrieb Charles Marcus
<CMarcus@media-brokers.com>:
On 9/18/2009, Matthias Andree (matthias.andree@gmx.de) wrote:
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server
five years), and it's natural that users will use that.It is also natural that critical servers should always be running the latest stable release of critical applications, of course after a short but suitable internal testing cycle...
I have never understood anyone who would use a distro for critical applications that forces them to use 3+ year old software.
POLA - principle of least astonishment. You cannot possibly oversee what
breaks for a gazillion of users if you update. It's not as though the
dovecot branches had strictly been regression-fixes only (as GCC is, for
instance).
-- Matthias Andree
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 15:56 +0200, Matthias Andree wrote:
No\"{e}l, I don't think such findings belong here.
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server five years), and it's natural that users will use that.
Really? I had not realised ubuntu wrote Dovecot, my bad ..Oh wait, they didnt, this guy called Timo did... I'm rather sure Timo like most of us do not want to waste valuable time debugging an issue from someone who will only run a 3 year old version. BTW its not natural, it might be to the newbies and SOHO's, but most people who know what they doing use source packages, because they can compile them to their own liking.
Am 18.09.2009, 22:32 Uhr, schrieb Noel Butler <noel.butler@ausics.net>:
On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 15:56 +0200, Matthias Andree wrote:
No\"{e}l, I don't think such findings belong here.
Ubuntu 8.04 is a long-term support release (desktop three years, server
five years), and it's natural that users will use that.Really? I had not realised ubuntu wrote Dovecot, my bad ..Oh wait, they didnt, this guy called Timo did... I'm rather sure Timo like most of us do not want to waste valuable time debugging an issue from someone who will only run a 3 year old version. BTW its not natural, it might be to the newbies and SOHO's, but most people who know what they doing use source packages, because they can compile them to their own liking.
Sounds like a case for Gentoo Linux, FreeBSD/NetBSD/DragonflyBSD or
perhaps Fedora Linux then.
-- Matthias Andree
On Sat, 2009-09-19 at 13:46 +0200, Matthias Andree wrote:
BTW its not natural, it might be to the newbies and SOHO's, but most people who know what they doing use source packages, because they can compile them to their own liking.
Sounds like a case for Gentoo Linux, FreeBSD/NetBSD/DragonflyBSD or
perhaps Fedora Linux then.
Actually OpenBSD and Slackware are the only OS's we use on any of our servers :)
Desktops and laptops are a mix of dual boot slackware/fedora/ubuntu/xp-pro (well we need something to program our phone systems with :P)
On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:03:48PM +1000, Noel Butler wrote:
The problem however is many people very dangerously and wrongly consider that their beloved favourite distro package, is in fact the current stable and the only one that exists. I'm horrified by the number of people responsible for servers that wont use anything but an rpm or a deb, they simply refuse to use the source, even though its current and stable, far more so than that rpm/deb file at like 3 years out of date, and they have the nerve to get narky at you for not helping them *sigh*
Well I can agree otherwise, but I can understand them too: they use (or even bought with support) a distribution to have a solution, otherwise they would be able to use own distro, compiling everything from source (hmm, gentoo?). The problem, that if they use many softwares and all of their makers say "use a newer one" soon they would find themselves with compiling _everything_ (the kernel itself too, soon, if it's based on an OS with open source kernel at least) from source, and maybe they don't want this, especially not with dozens of servers with their own managing tools, and so on. But otherwise fully agreed, I'm using most server softwares compiled from sources :) Just I tried to understand the other opinion too. Hopefully it was not highly off-topic here to tell this. [but it's also true that if they want the distributor's packages, they should ask for help from them maybe, because developers are focusing on the up-to-date versions and also next development ones, but not very old ones even patched by distributors with custom and/or backported patches ...]
I guess I should mention that I don't really mind people asking
questions when they're using an old version, but if it's a bug report
there's a good chance the answer is then "upgrade".
On 9/21/2009, Timo Sirainen (tss@iki.fi) wrote:
I guess I should mention that I don't really mind people asking questions when they're using an old version, but if it's a bug report there's a good chance the answer is then "upgrade".
Yours is one of the most helpful and patient attitudes I've ever seen on a support list.
That said, the biggest reason I see for upgrading often, especially for things like dovecot, is to take advantage of the performance improvements and new capabilities/options.
Of course, eventually I'm sure dovecot will hit a wall where performance improvements will be negligible, but for now, the difference between the 1.0.x version and 1.2.x is so great that anyone who refuses to upgrade is simply missing out.
Can't wait for full Single-Instance-Storage support in dbox!
--
Best regards,
Charles
Quoting Charles Marcus <CMarcus@Media-Brokers.com>:
That said, the biggest reason I see for upgrading often, especially for things like dovecot, is to take advantage of the performance improvements and new capabilities/options.
I've not seen to many lately, but maybe that is due to differences in say mbox versus maildir storage we use?
In fact, there were a couple times when performance got worse after an upgrade, though it was usually restored a release or two later...
I've upgraded only for bug-fixes, security-fixes, or because I needed a new feature in a new release...
On the other hand, dovecot was so fast compared to our old wu-imap server that I don't really care if it gets faster or not! The switch to dovecot was so great anything else since then is just gravy...
Of course, eventually I'm sure dovecot will hit a wall where performance improvements will be negligible, but for now, the difference between the 1.0.x version and 1.2.x is so great that anyone who refuses to upgrade is simply missing out.
Again, this might be storage related, or something... Don't assume it applies to everyone.
-- Eric Rostetter The Department of Physics The University of Texas at Austin
This message is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Use this message at your own risk.
On 9/21/2009 11:33 AM, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
Of course, eventually I'm sure dovecot will hit a wall where performance improvements will be negligible, but for now, the difference between the 1.0.x version and 1.2.x is so great that anyone who refuses to upgrade is simply missing out.
Again, this might be storage related, or something... Don't assume it applies to everyone.
The differences between 1.0.x and 1.2 apply to everyone... but obviously there are a lot of other factors that can impact performance in both directions...
--
Best regards,
Charles
Charles Marcus schrieb:
On 9/21/2009 11:33 AM, Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
Of course, eventually I'm sure dovecot will hit a wall where performance improvements will be negligible, but for now, the difference between the 1.0.x version and 1.2.x is so great that anyone who refuses to upgrade is simply missing out.
Again, this might be storage related, or something... Don't assume it applies to everyone.
The differences between 1.0.x and 1.2 apply to everyone... but obviously there are a lot of other factors that can impact performance in both directions...
But not everyone has the same requirements profile, and particularly not yours.
If I'm using Dovecot 1.0.X to serve a handful of users with Maildirs, I don't care a bit even for 90% of performance back or forth. I do care about maintenance.
If it works well in practice and is not known to be insecure, why mess with it.
"Works well" in the reporter's case is a matter of analyzing what's up before figuring out all the nitty-gritty details of rebuilding the package just to have an update. If you miss any migration needs for the new version, or a distro patch, you're way more screwed than the OP.
On 9/22/2009, Matthias Andree (matthias.andree@gmx.de) wrote:
If I'm using Dovecot 1.0.X to serve a handful of users with Maildirs, I don't care a bit even for 90% of performance back or forth. I do care about maintenance.
If it works well in practice and is not known to be insecure, why mess with it.
Yeah, I see your point...
There's nothing wrong with someone keeping their old 8-track tape player until it totally breaks either - I mean, it still works, right?
But seriously, whatever twists your ankle...
--
Best regards,
Charles
On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 01:24:27PM +0300, Timo Sirainen wrote:
I guess I should mention that I don't really mind people asking questions when they're using an old version, but if it's a bug report there's a good chance the answer is then "upgrade".
Indeed, thanks for the patience and sorry for my off-topic level, as I was developer too (mplayer for example) I know it's quite hard to do anything with bug reports about old (and/or even obsolated) versions when the development/bug fixing is done on the current branch ...
On Sep 18, 2009, at 11:52 AM, Gabriele wrote:
No problems with messages under 4MB size (there are huge messages,
up to 25MB), but as soon as I try to move messages from 4MB and up,
the connection hangs, nothing happens, the application becomes
barely responsive, I have quit and re-open it to make it behave
properly.
Do you have some kind of a software firewall or antivirus in the
middle? Those often cause problems.
But like Matthias mentioned, looking at the IMAP traffic would be
helpful. For example with http://wiki.dovecot.org/Debugging/Rawlog
I was never meant to start a flame, so forgive me if I didn't observe the list guidelines.
The issue is solved now, it was a simple firewall (anti-malware setting) issue…
This runs against distro vs distro arguments, version vs version, etc.
Before writing to this list I already Googled, contacted a couple of Ubuntu forums, a couple of independent lists, to no avail. I either had no reply, or have been told to upgrade, to change distro, to compile vs using binaries, to switch to gentoo, etc. etc.
"old stable" isn't always cause of issues, in general, although I might agree with many of your statements and observations.
Thanks for your time, guys! :-) Gabriele
participants (7)
-
Charles Marcus
-
Eric Jon Rostetter
-
Gabriele
-
Gábor Lénárt
-
Matthias Andree
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Noel Butler
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Timo Sirainen