[Dovecot] messages downloading repeatedly to mozilla/seamonkey pop3 client
Hello Dovecot List, I am a bit of a sysadmin novice and this is my first time emailing, so please let me know if I have left some critical information out. I am supporting a small office network supported primarily by linux servers. All of my users are using dovecot as a pop3 daemon on a centOS 5 box, no IMAP users. Seven users are running outlook 2003 on windows XP, two users are running thunderbird on ubuntu, two are running evolution on ubuntu, and one is running mozilla seamonkey on XP. Emails to the mozilla/seamonkey user are downloading multiple times, but not to any of the other users.
A typical maillog report following this user's mail client pop3 login:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:192.168.99.13, lip=::ffff:192.168.99.4 Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3) Mar 3 10:37:01 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84877 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=4) Mar 3 10:37:01 servername dovecot: POP3(user): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=1/3364, del=1/1, size=3347
Things I've tried: *adding the following lines to dovecot.conf: protocol pop3 { pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh } *deleting the user's homedir mail directory (including all dovecot index files) *restarting dovecot *changing mail clients: tried outlook express, netscape 4.8, thunderbird on user's PC *restarting the server
All changes resulted in only a brief (1-2hr) cessation of the problem.
I've subscribed for a month or so now and searched the archives, but if I missed a solution to this in there, I apologize. Thanks, Ben Julian
On Wed, 5 Mar 2008, Ben Julian wrote:
All changes resulted in only a brief (1-2hr) cessation of the problem.
I've subscribed for a month or so now and searched the archives, but if I missed a solution to this in there, I apologize.
That sounds like a drag. Let's see if we can help you.
Can you paste the results of dovecot -n into a message? That way we can see your whole configuration. What version of Dovecot are you using, and where did you get it from?
(I'm expecting you to tell me you're running some really old version, and I further expect that if you upgrade your woes will go away; but let's see!)
-- Asheesh.
-- A long-forgotten loved one will appear soon.
Buy the negatives at any price.
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
Timo, The user can't access the mailbox directly under normal use circumstances. He doesn't have a smb share setup to allow him access to the mbox file. As far as I know, the only program besides dovecot doing editing of the mail is spamassassin, but that happens before the mail is written to the mbox. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question? -Ben
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
Do you still have this problem? You could try setting mail_location explicitly to see if it changes anything (http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation).
On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 17:25 -0400, Ben Julian wrote:
Timo, The user can't access the mailbox directly under normal use circumstances. He doesn't have a smb share setup to allow him access to the mbox file. As far as I know, the only program besides dovecot doing editing of the mail is spamassassin, but that happens before the mail is written to the mbox. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question? -Ben
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
On Sun, May 04, 2008 at 05:35:31PM +0300, Timo Sirainen wrote:
Do you still have this problem? You could try setting mail_location explicitly to see if it changes anything (http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation).
On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 17:25 -0400, Ben Julian wrote:
Timo, The user can't access the mailbox directly under normal use circumstances. He doesn't have a smb share setup to allow him access to the mbox file. As far as I know, the only program besides dovecot doing editing of the mail is spamassassin, but that happens before the mail is written to the mbox. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question? -Ben
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
This looks a lot like the issue I reported last month at http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/2008-April/029991.html which see for configuration details.
At that time, I thought the problem was due to a conflict between Postfix adding a message to the mbox while dovecot was expunging messages. I have since seen the problem one more time apparently precipitated by two remote boxes accessing the same mailbox via separate dovecot processes simultaneously.
I have since added
pop3_lock_session = yes
to the dovecot configuration, and I have seen no further problems, but it's only been 2 weeks since I made the above change so it's too soon to know for sure.
-- Mark Sapiro mark at msapiro net The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Timo, Wow, thanks for checking back on this after all that time. I am actually still having problems, and just working around them by using a script to manually wipe out the inbox and index files for the user with the problem. I tried your suggestion of explicitly setting the mailbox location. It didn't seem to stop the problem, but it is hard to reproduce on demand. By sending the user a lot of forwarded mail, I was able to reproduce the issue once. I left it defined and tried Mark Sapiro's suggestion, adding " pop3_lock_session = yes", and so far, so good. I won't really know until a few days of use have passed. I'll be sure to let the list know how it turns out. Thanks for the follow up, guys, totally unexpected. -Ben
On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
Do you still have this problem? You could try setting mail_location explicitly to see if it changes anything (http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation).
On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 17:25 -0400, Ben Julian wrote:
Timo, The user can't access the mailbox directly under normal use circumstances. He doesn't have a smb share setup to allow him access to the mbox file. As far as I know, the only program besides dovecot doing editing of the mail is spamassassin, but that happens before the mail is written to the mbox. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question? -Ben
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
Timo and Mark, It appears that my problem was due to our configuration of the user's several home directories - we had different usernames created for this individual, but two of the home directory definitions in /etc/passwd were unintentionally pointing to the same place, causing the dovecot index files to overwrite each other. We never caught it before using pop3d, because they don't keep index A silly mistake. Sorry to bother you and the mailing list with this - clearly user error. :) Thanks for all your help! Ben
On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 1:51 PM, Ben Julian ben.julian@gmail.com wrote:
Timo, Wow, thanks for checking back on this after all that time. I am actually still having problems, and just working around them by using a script to manually wipe out the inbox and index files for the user with the problem. I tried your suggestion of explicitly setting the mailbox location. It didn't seem to stop the problem, but it is hard to reproduce on demand. By sending the user a lot of forwarded mail, I was able to reproduce the issue once. I left it defined and tried Mark Sapiro's suggestion, adding " pop3_lock_session = yes", and so far, so good. I won't really know until a few days of use have passed. I'll be sure to let the list know how it turns out. Thanks for the follow up, guys, totally unexpected. -Ben
On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
Do you still have this problem? You could try setting mail_location explicitly to see if it changes anything (http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation).
On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 17:25 -0400, Ben Julian wrote:
Timo, The user can't access the mailbox directly under normal use circumstances. He doesn't have a smb share setup to allow him access to the mbox file. As far as I know, the only program besides dovecot doing editing of the mail is spamassassin, but that happens before the mail is written to the mbox. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question? -Ben
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi wrote:
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:17 -0500, Ben Julian wrote:
Mar 3 10:37:00 servername dovecot: POP3(user): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/user (84873 > 84872, seq=2, idx_msgs=3)
This is the main problem, these shouldn't happen. Can the user access the mailboxes directly?
participants (4)
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Asheesh Laroia
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Ben Julian
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Mark Sapiro
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Timo Sirainen