From brokenpoet.org wiki

Contents 1 Default Addresses 1.1 Checking Default Address file count and size 1.1.1 Changing all accounts to :fail: 1.1.2 Removing all mail from Default Accounts 2 NEW SCRIPT

Default Addresses

Unfortunately, when a new WHM install is performed, it sets the Catch-All setting for all new cPanel users to the cPanel username.

This means that all mail destined for an address that doesn't exist ends up being deposited in /home/username/mail/new/ and /home/username/mail/cur/

This can cause numerous problems from quota overruns to cpbackup failing (due to the large number of files) - so it can cause minor to major issues.

While the default for NEW accounts can be changed to ":fail:" through WHM -> Tweak Settings, this does not affect the existing accounts.

Checking Default Address file count and size

I have written a script for this which will show you the count of files and the size of the directories for all users. At some point I want to rewrite in perl and have it sort and add the option to remove and change to :fail: per user. However, for now it is a multi-part process . . .

In order to get the script and run it (to see if this is an issue):

wget http://scripts.brokenpoet.org/chkdefaultaddresssize.sh
sh chkdefaultaddresssize.sh

Now on to the fixing

Changing all accounts to :fail:

:fail: is by far the best choice for the server and links to this affect are:

Blackhole or Fail -- Which One is Better For Your Mail Server

and

Why you should use :fail:

Now, to change all existing accounts to :fail: you should:

cd /etc/valiases
for file in $(grep -lr -e '*:' .); do sed 's/\*\:.*/\*\:\ \:fail\:\ No\ Such\ User\ Here/g' $file > $file.tmp; cat $file.tmp > $file;rm -f $file.tmp;done

Removing all mail from Default Accounts

Again, simple commandline fu:

for i in $(cat /etc/domainusers |cut -d':' -f1); do echo "Removing CUR mail for $i . . . ";\
 find /home/$i/mail/cur/ -type f|xargs rm -rf; echo "Removing NEW mail for $i . . . ";\
 find /home/$i/mail/new/ -type f|xargs rm -rf;done

That will take a WHILE sometimes (which is why I created the output) . . .

I had to write a variation of this to remove all mail except for certain users. Simply put in the usernames where it says user#.

for i in $(cat /etc/domainusers |cut -d':' -f1|awk '!/user1|user2/' );\
do echo "Removing CUR mail for $i";\
find /home/$i/mail/cur/ -type f|xargs rm -rf;\
echo "Removing NEW mail for $i";\
find /home/$i/mail/new/ -type f|xargs rm -rf;done

The "|" means OR - you can exclude more users by simply adding another |username to the section awk '!/user1|user2/'

ie: awk '!/user1|user2|user3|user4/'

NEW SCRIPT

There is a new version viewable here

It is faster and has more functionality.

You can simply download this as a script. Be sure to edit the script if you do not want to remove ALL default mail.

wget http://scripts.brokenpoet.org/removedefaultmail.sh

That's about it