If using v2.3 (in beta), you can use -nolock if you are using a
pre-filter like Procmail. I.e. You can use Procmail's locking
capabilities to insure single process access to the archive. I would
guess that Procmail's locking mechanism is more robust than MHonArc's.
Have you considered implementing fcntl() instead of using lock files?
Lock directory, actually. :)
As I understand it, the problem with fcntl() is in its communication with
lockd on NFS filesystems -- there's no guarantee that they'll be able to
talk to each other in a heterogenous environment with a shared filesystem.
For that matter, we poor folks who write directly into AFS would also be
at a disadvantage.
Perhaps MHonArc could implement the Big Three like procmail does --
dotlocking, fcntl(), and flock(). Of course, I'm still in favor of
wrapping MHonArc with procmail (or a script that at least calls
lockfile) and specifying -nolock on the commandline. I'd hate to
see MHonarc become bloated when the tools are out there to do this
already. If someone knows that they have locking problems and have
figured out what kind of locking they need, they're probably bright
enough to write a script that will wrap MHonArc and provide that
functionality. Or heck -- maybe we can add the script to the FAQ
or something.
Chris
