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private procmail and locking my mailbox: problems?

1996-09-10 17:38:31
My ISP does not have procmail.  The procmail README said it can be
installed by an "unprivileged" user, so I went ahead and did it. 
Installed fine.

Problem is, since procmail is running with no great privileges, it
cant create a lock file in my mailbox directory.  I read the FAQ (the
one that comes with the distribution) and took its advice and added
this code to the end of my .procmailrc

LOCKFILE        # removes any preexisting lockfile
LOG=`lockfile $DEFAULT$LOCKEXT`
TRAP="rm -f $DEFAULT$LOCKEXT"
    :0
    $DEFAULT     

However, I still get this set of messages (VERBOSE=on) at the end of
the processing.

procmail: Assigning "LOCKFILE"
procmail: Executing "lockfile,/var/mail/sitaram.lock"
lockfile: Try praying, giving up on "/var/mail/sitaram.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LOG="
procmail: Assigning "TRAP=rm -f /var/mail/sitaram.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=/var/mail/sitaram"
procmail: Opening "/var/mail/sitaram"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock
 Subject: test
  Folder: /var/mail/sitaram                         185
procmail: [15019] Sun Sep  8 10:09:03 1996
procmail: Notified comsat: "sitaram(_at_)829:/var/mail/sitaram"
procmail: Assigning "EXITCODE=0"
procmail: Executing "rm,-f,/var/mail/sitaram.lock"    

I dont have the smarts to figure out if the line starting with
"lockfile" is a potential problem, or the "Acquiring kernel-lock" (5
lines after that) solves what might have been a problem.

FYI, I usually download my mail using Pegasus (POP3).  Would a POP3
server acquire a "kernel-lock" before deleting downloaded mails?  Is
a "kernel-lock" sufficient?  Am I in trouble if I'm downloading mail
via Pegasus while an incoming mail comes in?  Or if 2 of 'em come in
together?

Please advice, anyone.  Asking my ISP to install procmail systemwide
is not an option, esp. since the README says it can be used by an
unprivileged user :-(  Thanks very much.

Sitaram
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sitaram Chamarty                                      
sitaram(_at_)albany(_dot_)net

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