hi,

i just try to install netqmail-1.0.5 on my experimental mail server, following the instruction from life with qmail website. i followed every step carefully and everything was ok until i started running qmail, and the readproctitle service error said :

"...multilog: fatal: unable to open directory /var/log/qmail: access denied?multilog: fatal: unable to open directory /var/log/qmail/smtpd: access denied?multilog: fatal: unable to open directory /var/log/qmail: access denied?multilog:..."

i checked with inst_check tool available from lwq and everything's fine.
The directories /var/log/qmail and /var/log/qmail/smtpd both have 755 permission and qmaill.root as the owner. when i ran qmailctl stat, the result was :

/service/qmail-send: up (pid 6766) 1964 seconds
/service/qmail-send/log: up (pid 10719) 0 seconds
/service/qmail-smtpd: up (pid 6768) 1964 seconds
/service/qmail-smtpd/log: up (pid 10718) 0 seconds
messages in queue: 0
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0

running the service from the directory directly (eg. "run" from /service/qmail-smtpd/log) will yield similar result :

multilog: fatal: unable to open directory /var/log/qmail/smtpd: access denied

i've tried to find the answer for hours but couldn't find anything helpful. does anybody have experience with this kind of problem ? tia

brgds
james

1) Run the commands ps -ef and post the output here for us to see. This will show us what qmail processes are running and if they look correct.

2) Now run...

svc -d /service/*
svc -d /service/*/log

and then run ps -ef and post the output here for us to see. This will show us what is left running after qmail is stopped. You shoudl not see any qmail processes running in the output. if you do, then we really need to see what *IS* running.

3) Now run...

svc -u /service/*
svc -u /service/*/log

To start your qmail up again.

4) Now run /var/qmail/bin/qmail-showctl and post the output here for us to see. It's going to be a lot of info. That's OK. Just be sure to include everything and please try to avoid censoring the output. You won't be opening up any security holes by showing us this information. This will show us how you've got qmail configured and if you might have missed anything.

5) Now post the contents of your qmail-smtpd/run scritps here. This will show us if you've got all the commands written out correctly in this file.

This may seem like a lot of information to post, but it will save time because these are the common things to look for when this kind of problem happens.

donboy,

* this is the output of the first ps-ef command :
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:04 init
root 2 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [keventd]
root 3 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kapmd]
root 4 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:01 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
root 9 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [bdflush]
root 5 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kswapd]
root 6 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kscand/DMA]
root 7 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:05 [kscand/Normal]
root 8 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kscand/HighMem]
root 10 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kupdated]
root 11 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [mdrecoveryd]
root 17 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [raid1d]
root 18 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 76 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [khubd]
root 1264 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 1265 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 1542 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 syslogd -m 0
root 1546 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 klogd -x
root 1556 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root 1567 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfil
root 1576 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 crond
root 1582 1 0 Sep21 tty1 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty1
root 1583 1 0 Sep21 tty2 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
root 1584 1 0 Sep21 tty3 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
root 1585 1 0 Sep21 tty4 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
root 1586 1 0 Sep21 tty5 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
root 1587 1 0 Sep21 tty6 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
root 1588 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /command/svscanboot
root 1590 1588 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 svscan /service
root 1591 1588 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:01 readproctitle service errors: ..
root 1592 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise qmail-send
root 1593 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise log
root 1594 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise qmail-smtpd
root 1595 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise log
qmails 15819 1592 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-send]
qmaild 15823 1594 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [tcpserver]
root 15828 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 qmail-lspawn ./Maildir/
qmailr 15829 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-rspawn]
qmailq 15830 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-clean]
root 20505 1556 0 07:50 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
james 20519 20505 0 07:50 ? 00:00:00 [sshd]
james 20520 20519 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash
root 20560 20520 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 [su]
root 20569 20560 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash
qmaill 20661 1595 1 07:50 ? 00:00:00 [multilog <defunct>]
qmaill 20662 1593 1 07:50 ? 00:00:00 [multilog <defunct>]
root 20663 20569 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -ef

* this is the result of ps-ef after i ran the svc commands :
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:04 init
root 2 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [keventd]
root 3 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kapmd]
root 4 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:01 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
root 9 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [bdflush]
root 5 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kswapd]
root 6 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kscand/DMA]
root 7 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:05 [kscand/Normal]
root 8 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kscand/HighMem]
root 10 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kupdated]
root 11 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [mdrecoveryd]
root 17 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [raid1d]
root 18 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 76 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [khubd]
root 1264 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 1265 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [kjournald]
root 1542 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 syslogd -m 0
root 1546 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 klogd -x
root 1556 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root 1567 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfil
root 1576 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 crond
root 1582 1 0 Sep21 tty1 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty1
root 1583 1 0 Sep21 tty2 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
root 1584 1 0 Sep21 tty3 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
root 1585 1 0 Sep21 tty4 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
root 1586 1 0 Sep21 tty5 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
root 1587 1 0 Sep21 tty6 00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
root 1588 1 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /command/svscanboot
root 1590 1588 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 svscan /service
root 1591 1588 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:01 readproctitle service errors: ..
root 1592 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise qmail-send
root 1593 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise log
root 1594 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise qmail-smtpd
root 1595 1590 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 supervise log
qmails 15819 1592 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-send]
root 15828 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 qmail-lspawn ./Maildir/
qmailr 15829 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-rspawn]
qmailq 15830 15819 0 Sep21 ? 00:00:00 [qmail-clean]
root 20505 1556 0 07:50 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
james 20519 20505 0 07:50 ? 00:00:00 [sshd]
james 20520 20519 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash
root 20560 20520 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 [su]
root 20569 20560 0 07:50 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash
root 20890 20569 0 07:53 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -ef

* output of qmail-showctl command :
qmail home directory: /var/qmail.
user-ext delimiter: -.
paternalism (in decimal): 2.
silent concurrency limit: 120.
subdirectory split: 23.
user ids: 7790, 7791, 7792, 0, 7793, 7794, 7795, 7796.
group ids: 2108, 2107.
badmailfrom: (Default.) Any MAIL FROM is allowed.
bouncefrom: (Default.) Bounce user name is MAILER-DAEMON.
bouncehost: (Default.) Bounce host name is kingsford.local.
concurrencylocal: (Default.) Local concurrency is 10.
concurrencyremote: (Default.) Remote concurrency is 20.
databytes: (Default.) SMTP DATA limit is 0 bytes.
defaultdomain: Default domain name is kingsford.local.
defaulthost: (Default.) Default host name is kingsford.local.
doublebouncehost: (Default.) 2B recipient host: kingsford.local.
doublebounceto: (Default.) 2B recipient user: postmaster.
envnoathost: (Default.) Presumed domain name is kingsford.local.
helohost: (Default.) SMTP client HELO host name is kingsford.local.
idhost: (Default.) Message-ID host name is kingsford.local.
localiphost: (Default.) Local IP address becomes kingsford.local.
locals: Messages for kingsford.local are delivered locally.
me: My name is kingsford.local.
percenthack: (Default.) The percent hack is not allowed.
plusdomain: Plus domain name is kingsford.local.
qmqpservers: (Default.) No QMQP servers.
queuelifetime: (Default.) Message lifetime in the queue is 604800 seconds.
rcpthosts: SMTP clients may send messages to recipients at kingsford.local.
morercpthosts: (Default.) No effect.
morercpthosts.cdb: (Default.) No effect.
smtpgreeting: (Default.) SMTP greeting: 220 kingsford.local.
smtproutes: (Default.) No artificial SMTP routes.
timeoutconnect: (Default.) SMTP client connection timeout is 60 seconds.
timeoutremote: (Default.) SMTP client data timeout is 1200 seconds.
timeoutsmtpd: (Default.) SMTP server data timeout is 1200 seconds.
virtualdomains: (Default.) No virtual domains.
defaultdelivery: I have no idea what this file does.
concurrencyincoming: I have no idea what this file does.

* and lastly, content of /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run :
#!/bin/sh

QMAILDUID=`id -u qmaild`
NOFILESGID=`id -g qmaild`
MAXSMTPD=`cat /var/qmail/control/concurrencyincoming`
LOCAL=`head -1 /var/qmail/control/me`

if [ -z "$QMAILDUID" -o -z "$NOFILESGID" -o -z "$MAXSMTPD" -o -z "$LOCAL" ]; then
echo QMAILDUID, NOFILESGID, MAXSMTPD, or LOCAL is unset in
echo /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
exit 1
fi

if [ ! -f /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts ]; then
echo "No /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts!"
echo "Refusing to start SMTP listener because it'll create an open relay"
exit 1
fi

exec /usr/local/bin/softlimit -m 2000000 \
/usr/local/bin/tcpserver -v -R -l "$LOCAL" -x /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb -c "$MAXSMTPD" \
-u "$QMAILDUID" -g "$NOFILESGID" 0 smtp /var/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd 2>&1



thx again
james

It looks like your problem is with the logging processes. Maybe let's check the contents of these files. Run...

cat /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
cat /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run

You may also want to check the permissions on those directories. The run files should be chmod 755 and owned by root.

You'll notice in the first set of ps output, there are 2 defunct processes showing up. These are your logging processes that aren't working. This is evident by your qmailctl stat command that shows the logging processes are up for only zero seconds. But in the second set of ps output, the defunct processes are being stopped, which is good. But I'm curious... do the defunct processes show up again when you start qmail again?

donboy,

thx 4 the reply. i found the remedy already, it's the permission of my /var directory (not just /var/log). appreciate your help. have a good one

thx
jms