File System Full

• Key: JAMES-146
• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Priority: Major
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Gabriel Kwok
• Component/s: MailStore & MailRepository
• Affects Version/s: 2.1, 2.1.3, 2.2.0

Environment

Operating System: Other
Platform: Other

Description

James has a problem starting when the var/mail/<subdir> is full ... such as
the "errors" subdirectory. I noticed this because my servers gets a tonne of
spam and eventually hits the maximum number of files allowed in a directory on
Linux/Unix. I had to clean up the /var/mail/errors directory to get James
started again.

Comments

Depending upon the OS and file system, there can be limits. Also the file-based repository ("file_pair" implementation) maintains an in-memory index, which expands as entries are written. There is no realy need to keep this for write-only repositories, such as error and spam.

A workaround would be to use mbox or db repositories. In the future, maildir might be an option. It is unlikely that the "file_pair" implementation will be "fixed" in terms of the total number of files, but perhaps we could add an option so that certain stores can be configured to not maintain the index, since they'll never be read.