[Mimedefang] 12,000 /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx directories in 7 days

Thu Feb 5 17:09:57 EST 2004

After running for a week, I took a look at the syslog entries for MIMEDefang on one of my smtp gateways, specifically the odd entries.  Below is a sample of what I saw.

Feb  4 21:13:42 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Db10065486: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:42 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Db10065486: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DhKg045858: Filter did not create RESULTS file
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DhKg045858) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DhKg045858: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DhKg045858: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DhKg045858: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152DhKg045858: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DgJu065814) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DgJu065814: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:43 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DgJu065814: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DgJu065814: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:44 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152DgJu065814: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:45 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dbtf060074) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:45 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dbtf060074: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dbtf060074: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:45 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dbtf060074: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:48 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dbtf060074: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:48 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dg05048558) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:48 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dg05048558: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dg05048558: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:48 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dg05048558: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:51 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dg05048558: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:51 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dm2L055154) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:51 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dm2L055154: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dm2L055154: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:51 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dm2L055154: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:53 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dm2L055154: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:53 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DrHs069280) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:53 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DrHs069280: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DrHs069280: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:53 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DrHs069280: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152DrHs069280: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dtb2051982) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dtb2051982: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dtb2051982: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dtb2051982: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dtb2051982: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dtb3051982) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dtb3051982: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dtb3051982: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:55 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dtb3051982: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dtb3051982: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DuHn037738) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DuHn037738: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DuHn037738: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DuHn037738: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152DuHn037738: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DvbY057048) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DvbY057048: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DvbY057048: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DvbY057048: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152DvbY057048: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dv7k055156) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152Dv7k055156: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152Dv7k055156: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:57 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152Dv7k055156: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:58 athos mimedefang[50512]: Error from multiplexor: error: i152Dv7k055156: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory
Feb  4 21:13:58 athos mimedefang[50512]: rmdir(/var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DwEZ048564) failed: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:58 athos mimedefang[50512]: i152DwEZ048564: failed to clean up /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DwEZ048564: File exists
Feb  4 21:13:58 athos mimedefang.pl[66070]: i152DwEZ048564: couldn't open HEADERS: No such file or directory

When I took a look in the /var/spool/MIMEDefang directory, I was quite surprised to see over 12,000 directories with timestamps spanning the previous 7 days.

It would appear that they weren't deleted because the directory (still) contained contents.

	$ cd /var/spool/MIMEDefang/mdefang-i152DwEZ048564
	$ ls -al
	total 816
	drwx------   3 defang   defang          512 Feb 04 21:13 .
	drwx------12508 defang   system       402432 Feb 05 13:57 ..
	-rw-------   1 defang   defang            2 Feb 04 21:13 RESULTS
	drwx------   2 defang   defang          512 Feb 04 21:13 Work
	$ ls -al Work
	total 16
	drwx------   2 defang   defang          512 Feb 04 21:13 .
	drwx------   3 defang   defang          512 Feb 04 21:13 ..
	$ 

What is supposed to happen?  Are the mdefang-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx directories supposed to be empty (cleaned up) before the rmdir is done?

And then there is the mimedefang.pl entry afterward that looks like it wants to open the HEADERS file after(?) the removal of the directory?

What is happening?

This gateway is running AIX 5.2 with sendmail-8.12.11 and handles about 500,000 messages per day.

Oh, by the way,... Why doesn't the mailing list take advantage of the section in MIMEDefang to strip out the html sections of MIME messages?

-- James

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