Marek Kozlowski:
> :-)
>
> On 2/7/21 10:00 PM, Wietse Venema wrote:
> > Marek Kozlowski:
> >> :-)
> >>
> >> I'm working on simplification, adding comments and brushing up my
> >> main.cf. I've just found the following entry:
> >>
> >> fork_attempts=10
> >>
> >> Seems to be added manually so there was some reason for it.
> >
> > How many people have root privilege on your machine?
>
> Only me. Have you ever read you own code (or quick fixes) written >5
> years ago if you'd forgotten to place comments? ;-)
I don't do quick fixes. Especially not systems that I depend on,
or with code that is released to other people.
> >> Could anyone give me some reason for the setting above? What problems
> >> can it potentially solve? What unwanted behavior may happen when I
> >> change it to the default (5)?
> >
> > By design, Postfix has safety limits on everything. Creating a
> > process is one example. Giving up is safe. The alternative is to
> > run an overloaded system into the ground, and that is unsafe.
> >
> > That is obvious to me. Maybve it's new to some.
>
> No, such configurable limits are great. My question was different. I
> suppose that many many years ago, many versions ago I had some problem
> with this server and I tried to solve it or apply a quick fix by
> incrementing the limit. Unfortunately I don't remember the problem. I
> don't even know if it could reappear if I set it to the default. Can
> anyone guess the potential problem given the solution? ;-))
The main principle is that there are limits. If the fork() syscall
fails more than a few times then the system is overloaded, and even
if the call succeeds on the sixth attempt, something else is likely
to fail anyway, and mail will still be deferred.
Wietse
