Weird Imap shared folders started to appear

bighusky · #1 January 2nd, 2007, 11:55 AM

Hi

since the end of November we have found new folders being created in the
/var/spool/imap folder (which in turn then show up as shared folders)

This is an example of the current directory:

Code:

mail3:/var/spool/imap root# ls
+_-bhjiv        +_-fywbk        +_-muq          +_-uztpqq       stage.
+_-djbqq        +_-lqp          +_-ooyf         +_-yxuqk        user
+_-egwha        +_-makzz        +_-rmvax        +_-zepy
+_-esqkfs       +_-msrwu        +_-swl          +_-zihqtl

each of these 'weird' folders contains:

Code:

mail3:/var/spool/imap root# ls -lisa +_-bhjiv/
total 24
155002034 0 drwx------    5 cyrusima  mail  170 Nov 28 22:31 .
   198256 0 drwxr-xr-x   20 cyrusima  mail  680 Jan  2 09:40 ..
155002037 8 -rw-------    1 cyrusima  mail    4 Nov 28 22:31 cyrus.cache
155002041 8 -rw-------    1 cyrusima  mail  154 Nov 28 22:31 cyrus.header
155002036 8 -rw-------    1 cyrusima  mail   76 Nov 28 22:31 cyrus.index

and here is what is in the cyrus.header file:

Code:

mail3:/var/spool/imap root# cat +_-bhjiv/cyrus.header 
Cyrus mailbox header
"The best thing about this system was that it had lots of goals."
        --Jim Morris on Andrew
+_-bhjiv        550a3cb4456d2947

anyone  lrs

Not sure if one of the last Mac OS X Server Updates (Mac OS X Server Tiger 10.4.x with all latest updates) was the source of starting this issue.

Even if it is nothing to worry about we sure would like to know what is causing the creation of these folders in the /var/spool/imap directory and if there is a way to either prevent it or move them somewhere else so they don't show up in the users folder structure. Can we delete them without causing possible issues (but what will prevent their re-creation)?

Tried to look it up on google and forums like this one but searching for "+_-" is not very easy :-)

Thanks for any information/help

BH

Kees Buijs · #2 January 3rd, 2007, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bighusky

Hi

since the end of November we have found new folders being created in the
/var/spool/imap folder (which in turn then show up as shared folders)

BH

Effectively I found the same problem. This does happen also before the latest server software update. Although you can delete the map, it in general do you nog good as in some occassions the same folder is created in several accounts and deletion the second occassion will return an imap error. Deleting the maps physicly also is no solution.

Although it is not a big issue, it is some kind of irritation, because a nicely build account list is made ugly by unwanted folders. The names look to be coming from other folders, maybe another program (like webmail) is cuasing this issue.

Looking forward to a possible solution,

With regards, wishing everyone a very happy 2007 (should not be to easy when not using m...s... garbage), Kees

bighusky · #3 March 5th, 2007, 11:08 AM

Sadly so far no one has been able to come up with an explanation on why this is happening.
It sure is annoying and as for us it had started with +_- now since last week they have changed to ._-

Currently we have setup a cron job to remove those newly created folder every 15 minutes.

We are going to build a generic linux/freebsd box to replace the whole apple server setup as it has proven to have too many 'little' issues like that and for our production server this is no longer acceptable.

BH

Satcomer · #4 March 5th, 2007, 12:17 PM

I am not sure about you particle problem but I did find a hint for oddly named Preference files.

Kees Buijs · #5 March 6th, 2007, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satcomer

I am not sure about you particle problem but I did find a hint for oddly named Preference files.

Thx for you link, but I do not think this is cause for my problem.

I have actual 2 problems.

1) I get to see normal named extra maps, linking to an other user.

2) I saw today the same weird names in the system and on the imap. (i moved the imap to a completely different location (different partition on the same disc).

I do not use anything of EPSON nor of Photoshop. I more get the impression WEBMAIL is part of the problem, although I do not have really investigated this. This may even be when e.g. windows machines access the mailserver through webmail.

Although it is a inconvience, I do not worry to much about it yet, but if anyone has a suggestion, I certainly would like to explore it.

Thx, Kees

bighusky · #6 March 6th, 2007, 10:06 PM

Thanks
Checked out the link and that has definitely nothing to do with this issue some of us are experiencing.
Ours is a XServer running Mac OS X Server with no third party software installed at all.

So far from what I can see is that there are spam messages coming in with these characters in the local part of the e-mail address.

Somewhere in the processing line of postfix-amavis-clamav-postfix out of these messages the shared folders with that same local portion are being created.

For us it started around November. Don't know if it is related to any Mac OS X Server updates around that time or what else?

Just very odd that it seems only to affect a few handful users of these servers.

That is one of the main reason why we are building a whitebox with all updated components to the e-mail system. Hopefully that will eliminate this annoying issue and make the CEO happy again.

BH