fatal: the Postfix mail system is already running – Solution

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Symptoms:
The following error message appears when starting postfix daemon:

# service postfix start 
Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent: postfixpostfix/postfix-script:
fatal: the Postfix mail system is already running
 failed!

Furthermore, a postfix daemon status reports that postfixis not running:

# service postfix status
postfix is not running.

Solution:
Postfix’s master PID file may still be present in /var/spool/postfix/pid directory. Navigate to this directory and remove it:

# cd /var/spool/postfix/pid
# ls
master.pid
# rm master.pid

Once you have removed the above master.pid start your postfix daemon:

# service postfix start    
  Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent: postfix

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