[Dovecot] [LDA] save failed to INBOX: Timeout while waiting for lock

[Timo Sirainen]

On 14.4.2011, at 10.47, Frank Bonnet wrote:

> I use LDA Dovecot 2 with SIEVE as Postfix delivery agent and I
> occasionally get such message in syslog.
> 
> info.log:Apr 13 12:39:40 lda(xxxxxxxx): Info:
> msgid=<4DA484FF.5060903 at gmail.com>: save failed to INBOX: Timeout while
> waiting for lock
..
>> mail_location = mbox:%h/:INDEX=/var/cache/dovecot/index/%u:INBOX=/var/mail/%u

That's the way mbox format works. One IMAP or POP3 client can lock the mailbox for a long time. LDA can either wait longer of fail and let MTA retry the delivery later. The default is:

mbox_lock_timeout = 5 mins

So apparently the LDA already waited for 5 minutes for the lock.

(There is also actually mail_max_lock_timeout setting, but the default is 0 = disabled.)