Re: [Exim] Debian Sarge Exim Crashing

Top Page
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Ryan Tracey
Date:  
To: Nico Erfurth
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] Debian Sarge Exim Crashing
Hi Nico

Thank you for the reply.

> > Exim version 4.32 #1 built 26-Apr-2004 09:57:22
>
> 4.34 is current, and IIRC there is also an debian package for it.


I am aware of 4.34 being current. Nonetheless, the latest Debian Sarge version appears to be 4.32-2.

obiwan:~# apt-get update
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/main Packages
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/main Release
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/contrib Packages
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/contrib Release
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/non-free Packages
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/non-free Release
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/main Packages
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/main Release
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/contrib Packages
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/contrib Release
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/non-free Packages
Hit http://non-us.debian.org sarge/non-US/non-free Release
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/main Release
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/contrib Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/contrib Release
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/non-free Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/non-free Release
Reading Package Lists... Done
obiwan:~# apt-get install exim4-daemon-heavy
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
exim4-daemon-heavy is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
obiwan:~# apt-cache showpkg exim4-daemon-heavy
Package: exim4-daemon-heavy
Versions:
4.32-2(/var/lib/apt/lists/http.us.debian.org_debian_dists_sarge_main_binary-i386_Packages)(/var/lib/dpkg/status)

Reverse Depends:
sork-passwd,exim4-daemon-heavy
sa-exim,exim4-daemon-heavy 4.30-1
rmail,exim4-daemon-heavy
gforge-mta-exim4,exim4-daemon-heavy
exim4-base,exim4-daemon-heavy 4.32
exim4,exim4-daemon-heavy
Dependencies:
4.32-2 - exim4-base (2 4.32) libc6 (2 2.3.2.ds1-4) libdb3 (2 3.2.9-19) libgnutls10 (2 1.0.0-0) libldap2 (2 2.1.17-1) libmysqlclient10 (0 (null)) libpam0g (2 0.76) libpcre3 (2 4.5) libperl5.8 (2 5.8.3) libpq3 (2 7.4) mail-transport-agent (0 (null)) mail-transport-agent (0 (null))
Provides:
4.32-2 - mail-transport-agent
Reverse Provides:

> There were 2 crashes fixed in 4.33 and 4.34, maybe they are related to
> your problem:
>
> 4.32/19. If the log selector return_path_on_delivery was set, Exim
> crashed when bouncing a message because it had too many Received: header
> lines.
> (this one also applies when you set +all in your log_selector)


No: log_selector = +tls_peerdn +tls_cipher +subject

> 4.33/2. If verify=header_syntax was set, and a header line with an
> unqualified address (no domain) and a large number of spaces between the
> end of the name and the colon was received, the reception process
> suffered a buffer overflow, and (when I tested it) crashed. This was
> caused by some obsolete code that should have been removed. The fix is
> to remove it!


I have not got verify=header_syntax set anywhere.

>> However, every week or so Exim will inexplicably die. I understand
>> that there was a problem in earlier versions of Exim4 where roughly one
>> in a million emails could potentially cause it to crash (unless I dreamt
>> that -- and with my current jetlag I wouldn't be surprised if I did.)
>> As I understand it a bugfix for this should have worked its way into
>> Debian Sarge by now. If this is a case, then perhaps I have done
>> something wrong in configuring Exim.
>
> Exim should not crash on bad configuration.
>
>> Is there anything I could check right now to help troubleshoot this.
>> I'll sanitise my config in anticipation of being asked show it.
>
> Does the exim DAEMON die? That should never happen....


Yes, it just goes away:

ps aux | grep exim4

Nada!

> Do you have logentries when the crash happens?


Nothing out of the ordinary. The log entries just stop and then resume when I start exim again.

A few entries like the following line occur in the minutes before the crash:

2004-06-30 20:00:50 1BfjNu-0002Mg-Qq no immediate delivery: more than 50 messages received in one connection

But, other than that, things seem pretty normal.

> Is there any data lying around in your spool directory?


Not in the spool directory itself. In the 'scan' directory there are some very old directories that don't seem to have been cleaned up (as old as April 16th -- no associated emails in mailq.)

> Do you have some kind of "special" system configuration?


Nothing out of the ordinary.


Regards,
Ryan