26.3.4 Dispatcher (SMTP Server) Won’t Start Up

If the dispatcher won’t start up, first check the dispatcher.log-* for relevant error messages. If the log indicates problems creating or accessing the /tmp/.SUNWmsgsr.dispatcher.socket file, then verify that the /tmp protections are set to 1777. This would show up in the permissions as follows:

drwxrwxrwt 8 root sys 734 Sep 17 12:14 tmp/
.

Also do an ls -l of the .SUNWmsgsr.dispatcher.socket file and confirm the proper ownership. For example, if this is created by root, then it is inaccessible by inetmail.

Do not remove the .SUNWmsgsr.dispatcher.file and do not create it if it’s missing. The dispatcher will create the file. If protections are not set to 1777, the dispatcher will not start or restart because it won’t be able to create/access the socket file. In addition, there may be other problems occurring not related to the Messaging Server.