Comment 2 for bug 534773

It works if /etc/mailname is non-empty, I know that.

The problem is: you can't simply uninstall postfix if you have a configuration problem like that. The pre-removal package script fails because the daemon can't be stopped and the init script gives an error. This is unfortunate as non-technical guys are left with a postfix which doesn't work but they can't to the 'apt-get remove (--purge) XX', 'apt-get install XX' or 'apt-get install YY' they've been told to try by some more geeky friend;-)

It might be nitpicking, but fixing should be more or less simple and make the Ubuntu experience just that little bit better.

I understand that stopping postfix in an 'orderly fashion' (from the manpage:-) is a priority, but stopping the deamon is triggered by some human action and meant to succeed. And there's the 'abort' action supported by the init script, too.

My take would be to kill the postfix process if 'quiet-stop' gives an error.