Marc Shapiro via Dng wrote:
> I am getting e-mails like the one below all the time, now.  I had this
> problem once before and I think that all I had to do was clear the
> paniclog with '> paniclog', but that does not seem to be working,
> now.  I cleared it this morning, and when I just checked it was
> filling up again.  It looks like I get three lines every half hour. 
> This is preventing me from receiving e-mails sent by a cron job that
> runs a backup script.  Any ideas on how to get rid of this and not
> have it come back would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Marc
>
> e-mail showing paniclog:
>
> exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on quixote.home has non-zero
> size, mail system might be broken. Up to 10 lines are quoted below.
>
> 2021-11-30 06:00:19 1momA3-00054k-DE ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 06:30:19 1mrJnB-00026m-53 ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 06:30:20 1mmEkA-00009l-Jr ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 06:30:20 1momA3-00054k-DE ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:00:19 1mrJnB-00026m-53 ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:00:19 1mmEkA-00009l-Jr ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:00:19 1momA3-00054k-DE ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:30:19 1mrJnB-00026m-53 ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:30:20 1mmEkA-00009l-Jr ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
> 2021-11-30 07:30:20 1momA3-00054k-DE ==marc@???  R=local_user
> T=mail_spool defer (-1): Tainted '/var/mail/marc' (file or directory
> name for mail_spool transport) not permitted
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dng mailing list
> Dng@???
> https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng

Does this help?  A dist-upgrade, thus upgrading exim, could cause
breakage, requiring configuration update.  I use postfix instead of
exim, and don't know much about exim, just found this following link on
a search.

https://lists.archive.carbon60.com/exim/users/117441