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