mailboxes.db unreadable, recovery procedure?

[Wesley Craig]

What error are you getting that indicates that mailboxes.db is  
unreadable?  I suspect that the backups will also be unreadable, due  
to the way they are made.  If they *are* readable, as the cyrus user:

	ctl_mboxlist -d -f db.backup1/mailboxes.db > somefile.txt

You'll want to examine "somefile.txt" to decide if it's more or less  
reasonable.  Then move mailboxes.db and the contents of db directory  
out of the way.  Run:

	ctl_mboxlist -u < somefile.txt

You'll probably want to run:

	ctl_mboxlist -d

again to see whether it worked.

Also, the reconstruct -m thing is kind of misleading.  reconstruct is  
still available, and can be used to regenerate mailboxes.db from the  
contents of the cyrus spool area.  More or less :)

:wes

On 25 Aug 2006, at 12:48, !jeff!{InterVerse} wrote:
> I have a cyrus system with only about 20 users on it.  They have  
> about 3 gigs of mail.
>
> The mailboxes.db file is unreadable.  of course, reconstruct -m is  
> unavailable, in typical dougadamsian fashion.
>
> I have seen recommendations to try to 'rebuild the db' using the  
> 'db.backup1' or 'db.backup2' directories.  I have the dirs.  What  
> specific command (including flags) do I use to attempt that?
>
> i have seen use 'ctl_cyrusdb -r' but I keep getting segmentation  
> fault and core dump.  I have tried that with and without my  
> corrupted mailboxes.db file in place.  what does that tell us?
>
> Since it's such a small system, a backup the mail spool, reinstall,  
> recreate user accounts type of approach would work for me if that's  
> the simplest thing to do... or just a 'run this command to get a  
> fresh mailboxes file'... but I don't know how.
>
> Can somebody please give me a step by step here?