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I got a Ubuntu 14.04 server and I am testing Postfix. My /var partition got full at a certain moment, but I could still send some emails (locally and to a different host too). Postfix accepted for sending these emails but they are held in the folder /var/spool/postfix/maildrop with file names like A4DC8242D8 etc.
I see in /var/log/syslog errors like :

  ubuntu postfix/pickup[3989]: warning: maildrop/A4DC8242D8: error writing 09A6E25281: queue file write error

Concerning another file in the maildrop folder, I got nothing in the syslog or mail.log.

I'm guessing that the error message warning: maildrop/A4DC8242D8: error writing 09A6E25281: queue file write error wants to say that Postfix is trying to pass the file A4DC8242D8 from the maildrop folder to a queue folder as the file 09A6E25281, but it can't because of the lack of space.
I'm sure that if I free some space, everything is going to be ok, but I'm just trying to figure out the below.

My question is, why aren't the emails delivered ? Why they were accepted at all for sending ? Where is the location of that queue ?

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  • What does mailq run as root show for the state of the postfix queues? Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 22:21
  • It shows the pending requests, actually i can see there the files listed, like : A4DC8242D8 16245(size) 'date' 'sender/recipient' Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 22:25

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Okay, if they're stuck in the queue, try:

postsuper -d ALL deferred

as root to reprocess anything stuck in the queue (with mailq runs before and after and checking on the logs to confirm things are working again).

Also setup monitoring so you get alerts or something well before the mail partition fills up...

As for where the queue directory is, postconf | grep queue should be a good start, and then dig around under the queue_directory manually. The stuck mails were probably in-flight when the disk filled up (that is, they had been accepted by the mailserver but not yet successfully handed off to the local delivery agent).

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  • Thank you I will retain this for future use, but in this case it did not solve the problem. I also added some more details to my question. Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 22:48

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