[NCLUG] Apparent size limitation on /var/spool/mail

[DJ Eshelman]

Hey everyone - crazy times!

I have an issue that is just killing me and causing too many late night
calls...

apparently, when the /var/spool/mail/<uid> file gets about 50MB, mail flow
stops completely for that user, but is fine for everyone else.  Depending on
their .procmailrc configuration, the system will generate messages back to
the person who sends them mail that looks like this:

"This is the Postfix program at host myserver.com.
>
> I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered
> to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
>
> For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>
>
> If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own
> text from the attached returned message.
>
>                   The Postfix program
>
> <user.group at myserver.com<jillene.kai-terra at misterx.techsmartsolutions.com>>
> (expanded from
>
>     <email at domain.com>): can't create user output file. Command output:
>
>     procmail: Error while writing to "clamdscan" procmail: Error while
> writing
>
>     to "/var/mail/user.group" "
>


Apparently a lot of people (against my advice) are using POP3 clients with
the 'leave mail on server' option checked.  (before you say "easy, just
don't do that"; it's my boss that wants this limit so that they can go in to
webmail to check their latest stuff).  Well, with the constant problem of
people sending large attachments thru email (the battle is lost on this one,
I'm afraid), 50MB is sometimes about a day's worth of mail for some users.
While I'm encouraging the use of IMAP instead (which would still take up
storage space on the server, but at least the files could be easily moved
out of the /var/spool/mail file into their home directories.)  Since he's
not going for that option, I'm kind of in a panic.

So, the question is: what can I do?  There's no quotas set that I can see,
and frankly I don't even know where to start searching Google...  after an
hour or so I just had to give up because I just wasn't getting any good
results.

Even if you could give me a good idea on keywords to search on, that would
help.  Just typing in /var/spool/mail 50MB or size limit is still like
looking for a needle in a haystack.

this is a CentOS 4.3 system running:
Postfix 2.2.10 (1.1.el4)
Dovecot .99.11 (8.EL4)
ClamAV 0.91.2 (1.el4.rf)
SpamAssassin  3.2.3 (1.el4.rf)
Procmail 3.22 (14)


Thanks in advance!