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ubuntualiaspostfix-mtahardlink

Trying to run newaliases: newaliases: fatal: /etc/: file has 85 hard links

I just updated my /etc/aliases file like so:

postmaster: root
mailer-daemon: postmaster
nobody: root
hostmaster: root
usenet: root
news: root
webmaster: root
www: root
ftp: root
abuse: root
root: myusername

However now I am getting an error while running newaliases:

newaliases: fatal: /etc/: file has 85 hard links

And now postfix will not start:

# postfix start
postfix: fatal: /etc/: file has 85 hard links
Solution

  • I figured out what was going on. Do not do what I did and blindly copy/paste things from tutorials. Make sure you properly read up on the configuration options and know what they mean.

    http://www.postfix.org/BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README.html#myorigin

    This was part of my /etc/postfix/main.cf file:

    myhostname = mail.mydomain.com
myorigin = /etc/

    I had forgotten to complete the myorigin line or it had gotten messed up somewhere along the way. What I meant to put was this:

    myhostname = mail.mydomain.com
myorigin = </etc/mailname

    The < tells postfix to read that file. Now newaliases and all of the postfix commands work perfectly.