Re: Qpopper continually fails to POP mail from large mbox

Daniel Senie <[email protected]>

> At 02:41 PM 7/18/2006, Gerard wrote:
> >Using FreeBSD 6.1 STABLE
> >
> >I am continuing to have a problem with qpopper getting mail from an mbox
> >once the file grows to any sizable capacity
> >
> >This is an excerpt from the /var/log/messages file:
> >
> >Jul 18 08:36:47 seibercom qpopper[894]: gerard at 192.168.0.3 
> >(192.168.0.3): -ERR POP EOF or I/O Error
> >Jul 18 08:36:47 seibercom qpopper[894]: Stats: gerard 0 0 143 
> >30288106 192.168.0.3 192.168.0.3
> >Jul 18 08:36:50 seibercom qpopper[894]: I/O error flushing output to 
> >client gerard at 192.168.0.3 [192.168.0.3]: Operation not permitted (1)
> 
> This message most commonly indicates the client gave up and went 
> away. Perhaps your customer is giving up because you're trying to 
> push 30MB of data to them?
> 
> 
> >The recourse I have is to manually delete the contents of the mailbox. I
> >have the latest version of qpopper installed. I am unsure as to where I
> >could post this problem to other than here. I would like to post a bug
> >report, but I am not sure as to where to place it.
> 
> This issue has been discussed at length. Generally the issue is not 
> qpopper's fault. You haven't mentioned what version of qpopper you're 
> running, though, it's also possible you're running an older version.
> 
The program version is 4.0.9, so it is not obsolete.

Here is how the problem plays out.

1) Use fetchmail to harvest mail from main mail server - but leave the
mail on the main server.

2) Attempt to POP the mail off my server
   a) If the mbox reaches a certain threshold, the downloading of mail
      will fail.

3) Attempt to download the mail left on the main server
   a) Success

I have seen this problem mentioned many time. I have been advised to
dump my present mail system and install an 'imap' system with 'dovecot'
to handle mail delivery. Even the fetchmail manuals describe a problem
with qpopper and a large mbox(s).

If you know of a solution, I would appreciate hearing about it.


-- 
Gerard Seibert
[email protected]