QF File Found After Crash

A user sent an email message with a substantial number of large attachments, which exhausted the free space in the /var partition of a Linux email server, which was running low on space because of other large messages queued on the system and some large log files. That particular message proved to be the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. The system crashed and rebooted. In addition to the df file containing the message's body and attachments, I found a QF file, instead of the normal qf file, in the /var/spool/mqueue directory. The qf file contains the message's headers and other information.

# ls -lh *fk0PJ0eqI021438
-rw-------    1 root     smmsp         49M Jan 25 14:04 dfk0PJ0eqI021438
-rw-------    1 root     smmsp         948 Jan 25 14:04 Qfk0PJ0eqI021438

After clearing space on the partition, I didn't see the message associated with the two files when I used the mailq command, apparently because there was a QF file rather than a qf file.

So I renamed the Qf file changing the "Qf" to "qf" and then sent the message with sendmail -v -qIk0PJ0eqI021438. You can have sendmail manually process a queue by using a "-qI" option followed by the queue ID, which is the sequence of letters and digits after the "qf" in the filename. Adding a "-v" as well provides verbose information on what is happening as the queued message is processed.

The message was then processed by the server. It was addressed to two hotmail.com addresses. The hotmail server didn't like its size either, though, and rejected it. Apparently, though Microsoft now offers 250 MB of free storage with their free hotmail.com accounts, there is a limit on the size of any individual email message and the Hotmail email server regarded a 49 MB message as too large and bounced it back to the sender.

[root@example mqueue]# sendmail -v -qIk0PJ0eqI021438
 
Running /var/spool/mqueue/k0PJ0eqI021438 (sequence 1 of 1)
<mollychanged2@hotmail.com>,<danielchanged2@hotmail.com>... Connecting to mx1.hotmail.com. via esmtp...
220 bay0-mc1-f16.bay0.hotmail.com Sending unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail
to Microsoft's computer network is prohibited. Other restrictions are found at http://privacy.msn.com/Anti-spam/. Violations will result in use of equipment located in California and other states. Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:19:37 -0800
>>> EHLO example.com
250-bay0-mc1-f16.bay0.hotmail.com (3.1.0.18) Hello [192.168.0.26]
250-SIZE 29696000
250-PIPELINING
250-8bitmime
250-BINARYMIME
250-CHUNKING
250-AUTH LOGIN
250-AUTH=LOGIN
250 OK
>>> MAIL From:<laura3@example.com> SIZE=51191604
552 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
Service unavailable
<laura3@example.com>... Connecting to local...
<laura3@example.com>... Sent
Closing connection to mx1.hotmail.com.
>>> QUIT
221 bay0-mc1-f16.bay0.hotmail.com Service closing transmission channel

References:

1. [Chapter 23] 23.3 A Bogus qf File (V8 only): Qf
2. Hotmail to offer 250MB of free storage
   By Jim Hu
   Staff Writer, CNET News.com
   Published: June 23, 2004

[/network/email/sendmail] permanent link

Messages File Too Large

I needed to make some more free space in the /var partition on a Linux system and found that the largest file in /var/log was the messages file, which had grown to 75 MB, because it was no longer being rotated. I moved the current messages file to another partition and then used /etc/init.d/syslog restart, which restarts syslogd, which was the process that had the messages file open. Restarting syslogd leads to the creation of a new messages file

[/os/unix/syslog] permanent link

PowerPoint Animation Schemes Grayed Out

If you find that the entries under "Animation Schemes" in Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 are grayed out, you may need to change a PowerPoint option setting. For instance, if you click on "Slide Show" and select "Animation Schemes", but see that the Animation Schemes entries are unavailable, i.e. they are grayed out, then the "New animation effects" option may be set to "disabled". To re-enable the Animation Schemes effects, within PowerPoint, click on "Tools", then "Options" and then make sure that "New animation effects", under "Disable new features", is not checked.

[ More Info ]

[/os/windows/office/powerpoint] permanent link

Windows Security Center.AntiVirusOverride

If you run Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4 and find that it detects Windows Security Center.AntiVirusOverride, that is not necessarily anything to worry about and, in fact, you may want to deselect this item as one that Spybot will "fix".

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[/security/spyware/spybot] permanent link