Re: [Exim] unable to transfer mail from my machine

Phil Pennock <Phil.Pennock@???> writes:

> On 2002-05-01 at 01:56 -0400, Tomasz Kosinski wrote:
> > I have been using exim (together with fetchmail) with no problems for 6
> > months or so. As of a few days ago, I am no longer able to send mail
> > from my machine (mostly single user, dial-up connection). For every
> > message I try to send out, the exim log shows first that the "Spool file
> > is locked (another process is handling this message)" and then that the
> > connection to the remote mailhost is timed out.
> >
> > I do not know what I have done to cause this problem, I haven't adjusted
> > any of the configuration files. I can't find which "Spool" is locked, or
> > which "process" is handling the message - the "ps" command shows no
> > process handling the message, and to my knowledge I haven't adjusted the
> > permissions on any files.
>
> What does "exiwhat" show you? It should have been installed into the
> same directory as the other Exim maintenance commands (which for Exim 3
> are documented in "53. Exim utilities" in the Spec).
>
> If you go to the nearest Exim site mirror and choose to look at the
> documentation, then the FAQ for Exim 3, and search for
> Spool file is locked
> then you'll see that this is the topic of Q0035 in the FAQ.
>
> Also, Q0042 then covers your question.

Thank you very much for your reply, I had searched, unsuccessfully for
the exiwhat utility (having read, if not fully understood, the FAQ
sections you refer to). Must have been too much frustration getting in
the way. In any event, I have now located exiwhat, and the output shows
messages which certainly do not originate from my machine, for example

sanmarco# exiwhat
2423 delivering 1736Ar-0000d3-00 to mta3-mail.angelfire.com
[209.185.123.71] (jhlzoju@???)
2451 delivering 1736E6-0000dV-00 to mx2.mail.lycos.com
[209.185.123.147] (ojnotw@???)
2469 delivering 1736G4-0000dn-00 to mail-com.mr.outblaze.com
[205.158.62.35] (pplvsxhjk@???)
2495 delivering 1736Iq-0000eD-00 to mta6-mail.angelfire.com
[209.185.123.74] (ewkuejw@???)
2542 delivering 1736Q0-0000ey-00 to mta5-mail.angelfire.com
[209.185.123.73] (rjiygqrvtb@???)

If i try to kill the process (the numbers are much higher than the
current processes), I get

sanmarco# kill 2414
bash: kill: (2414) - No such pid

And if I try to remove with -Mrm the messages, I get

sanmarco# exim -Mrm 1736Ar-0000d3-00 1736E6-0000dV-00 1736G4-0000dn-00 1736Iq-0000eD-00 1736Q0-0000ey-00
Message 1736Ar-0000d3-00 is locked
Message 1736E6-0000dV-00 is locked
Message 1736G4-0000dn-00 is locked
Message 1736Iq-0000eD-00 is locked
Message 1736Q0-0000ey-00 is locked

And the output of exiwhat is another bunch of messages, (not coming from
here) which I don't know how to get rid of.


> If following the advice in the FAQ doesn't work, because there are no
> relevant processes (as suggested by looking at ps) then use lsof (or I
> think GNU/Linux systems sometimes include "fuser"?) to see if anything
> owns the lockfile, and try removing it.

I am sorry to say that I can't figue out how to use "fuser"...Is there
one single lockfile which I should be looking for and which I can kill
somehow, or is each message locked separately. I don't mind wiping out
my whole queue, because, of course, I can't send out any mail anyhow.

I really appreciate your help, because I am quite stuck here. Any idea
how all these mails can get into a system?

Thank you again,

Tomasz (end-user, non sys admin)

[...]