Hi, maybe my expectations are wrong, but because I did not see any warnings/notices after emerging postfix on a new system, I am reporting this: I would expect, that after emerging mail-mta/postfix (currently 2.9.5) you would have a working mta installed. This is not the case. You will end up with warnings like Jan 20 03:10:26 gentoo1 postfix/postdrop[15807]: warning: mail_queue_enter: create file maildrop/162073.15807: No such file or directory in syslog. This can be fixed by stopping mail-mta/postfix and calling postfix with set-permissions: # /etc/init.d/postfix stop # postfix set-permissions The last command will BTW output chown: cannot access '/etc/postfix/LICENSE': No such file or directory Before calling set-permissions: # ls -la /var/spool/postfix/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 12 22:27 . drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Jan 12 22:34 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 12 22:27 .keep_mail-mta_postfix-0 after calling set-permissions: # ls -la /var/spool/postfix/ total 64 drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 . drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Jan 12 22:34 .. drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 active drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 bounce drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 corrupt drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 defer drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 deferred drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 flush drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 hold drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 incoming -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 12 22:27 .keep_mail-mta_postfix-0 drwx-wx--- 2 postfix postdrop 4096 Jan 20 15:04 maildrop drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 pid drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 private drwx--x--- 2 postfix postdrop 4096 Jan 20 15:04 public drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 saved drwx------ 2 postfix root 4096 Jan 20 15:04 trace When we cannot do this in the setup process, we should show a notice/warning to the user. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install mail-mta/postfix-2.9.5 2. Start it (/etc/init.d/postfix start) 3. Wait some time or just send a local message 4. Check your syslog Actual Results: Running mail-mta/postfix out of the box will result in warnings like Jan 20 03:10:26 gentoo1 postfix/postdrop[15807]: warning: mail_queue_enter: create file maildrop/162073.15807: No such file or directory in syslog. Expected Results: mail-mta/postfix should work out of the box. If not, we should tell the user that he/she has to do something.
I can't reproduce this. Moreover, postfix start command - issued by /etc/init.d/postfix start - does create the missing directories. Not sure what happened in your case.