[Dovecot] Too many links

Simon Waters simonw at zynet.net
Wed Mar 29 12:48:40 EEST 2006


On Wednesday 29 Mar 2006 10:22, Feraudet Cyril wrote:
>
> During the migration (simple but very long process) I get a "Too many
> links" error
> from dovecot.

> Have you an idea ?

I think this is a limit on the Linux VFS structures. I don't know how to tune 
it, or if it is tunable upwards in a simple fashion.

The problem is when you have more than 31998 in an ext2 file system.

http://lists.svlug.org/pipermail/svlug/2001-December/038824.html

Since there are underlying structures with similar limits, it will likely 
affect many file systems,  although you may get closed to 32768 before it 
fails.

Probably best to use a hierarchical naming strategy to avoid so many 
directories at the same level in the 
tree; /var/spool/mail/domain/us/er/username

Hans Reiser has commented the underlying limits make his file system look bad, 
although he didn't put it that brutally.


More information about the dovecot mailing list