Jim:
> (This is really for postfix developers, but since I'm not allowed to
> post this on the devel list, here it is here.)
>
> Background: I recently moved from Ubuntu to Artix. On Ubuntu, for
> better or worse, mailbox_size_limit is 0, and I blissfully went around
> using a large inbox.
>
> On Artix, the default is 51200000. (Aside: in 1985, that would have
Postfix has limits on everything, so that the mail system will not
get stuck. It's really a bad idea to disable them.
> Not realizing this is one of the parameters I would need to configure,
> I fired up fetchmail and started downloading my email.
>
> This limit caused me to lose a certain number of email messages with
> the only hint being log messages containing this:
> ... status=bounced (can't create user output file)
TL;DR: If you want a better error message, stop using procmail.
Procmail returns a status of 73, which is one of 15 status codes
defined in /usr/include/sysexits.h. This file defines the interface
between a mail server (such as Postfix) and an external program
that delivers mail (such as procmail). The problem is not in
procmail, it is in the sysexits.h interface.
If you use Postfix itself for mailbox delivery, then the error
message will be "File too large", one of the dozens of status codes
defined in /usr/include/errno.h. On Linux, that file is the top of
a forest of include files.
Finally, if you want to keep lots of mail around, don't keep
everything in one huge mailbox file. Instead, use Maildir format
with one message per file, or rotate files frequently like I do.
Wietse
