[Dovecot] mbox file too large error with deliver

Seth Mattinen sethm at rollernet.us
Mon Nov 24 00:08:23 EET 2008


Gokdeniz Karadag wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am using dovecot on debian, with version 1.0.rc15-2etch4. Along with 
> postfix.
> 
> The deliver binary cannot deliver to large mailboxes. I cannot state an 
> exact size limit but mbox mailboxes above 1GB seem to be affected.
> 
> I have these in in postfix/main.cf
> mailbox_command = /usr/lib/dovecot/deliver
> mailbox_size_limit = 5120000000
> 
> The user.log file shows these (I believe if no logging is specified, 
> deliver binary tries to log with "logger" and they go to user ?)
> 
> user.log.3.gz:Nov  8 21:23:01 guvercin deliver(dummy): write() failed 
> with mbox file /var/mail/dummy: File too large
> user.log.3.gz:Nov  8 21:23:01 guvercin deliver(dummy): 
> msgid=<4915957C.8090606 at ceng.metu.edu.tr>: save failed to INBOX
> user.log.3.gz:Nov  8 21:23:01 guvercin deliver(dummy): sieve runtime 
> error: Keep: Generic Error
> 
> The /var/mail/dummy file exists and is 1.9GB, so my filesystem certainly 
> supports files >1G
> 
> What may be the problem ?
> 

The limit you're probably thinking of is 2G (not 1G), if it applies to 
your particular OS. On a 32 bit system without large file support 
treating sizes as a signed integer, 2^31 bytes is 2 gigs.

~Seth


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