Re: [Exim] failed to open DB file

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 11:04:37 +0100, Martin Kaiser wrote:

> yet another one of these problems. Browsing the previous mails on this
> list didn't help, so I have to bother you once again.
>
> I'm using exim 4.12 on FreeBSD 4.1, compiling Exim from the sources
> (using the port is not an option on this machine).

That's unfortunate, because the port is intended to protect you from
exactly this sort of problem.

> In the log file, I see the following message:
>
> 2003-01-14 10:41:01 18YLaF-000Fxd-00 failed to open DB file
> /var/spool/exim/db/retry: Inappropriate file type or format

I see from the rest of the thread that you've already tried deleting
those files, but that the problem persists.

In that case, it looks like you have a Berkeley DB version conflict.

> Exim can't keep track of the retry times, undeliverable mails will never
> be expunged from the queue.
>
> I tried both the DBM that comes with FreeBSD and the latest Berkeley
> DB4. However, I still get the same message.

You got the same message, but possibly for two different reasons.

You didn't supply your EDITME / Makefile, and you didn't supply the
output from ldd /usr/local/sbin/exim, so I can only guess.

My guess is that using the base system's Berkely DB failed because your
Makefile specified an incompatible DB version, and that using the latest
Berkeley DB4 failed because of a recent API change on the 4.x branch of
Berkeley DB.

I hope that your reason for not using the FreeBSD port for Exim isn't "I
can't use CVSup to update my ports tree". If that's the reason, you're
in _REAL_ trouble, running an unpatched FreeBSD 4.1 host connected to
the Internet. :-)

Ciao,
Sheldon.