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Re: Couldn't determine implicit lockfile from "appnmail"

1996-12-16 01:12:01
Jacques Garbi <jacques(_dot_)garbi(_at_)colombus(_dot_)com> writes:
I  tried basic recipes and most of them start with :0: to use a  
lockfile. But everytime a mail arrives, I have this error in the  
procmail log :
Couldn't determine implicit lockfile from "appnmail"

Note that the mail gets delivered anyhow and that I fortunately can  
read it. But this error continues to arrive everytime. Here is an  
example of one of my recipes :
:0:
* ^TOprocmail
|appnmail Mail

This appnmail Mail will append the incoming mail to the file Mail/mbox
Does anyone have an idea on how to set up those lock files without  
getting all these errors ?
And further more, does the mere prescence of a .lock file actually  
means that it is locked or does this file have to hold something in  
it to ensure the locking process ?

appnmail is for delivering the (blech) NeXT Mail.app style mailboxes.
The whole reason for using it is that it a) knows how to update the
"table_of_contents" file; and b) know how to lock the mailbox.  If it
wasn't for the former of those you could just use procmail, but since
Mail.app _really_ wants to see a table_of_contents entry for each
message, you have to use appnmail.

If you don't use NeXT Mail, don't use appnmail.

If you do use NeXT Mail, consider that the mailbox is kept locked for
as long as you have it open, which can lead to piles of appnmail
processes hanging on your mail server, which may make your sysadmin
angry.

That all said, you'll notice that appnmail is described above as doing
the locking for you.  You therefore don't need or want procmail do any
locking, and should therefore remove the second colon from the recipe's
starting line.

As for whether a lockfile needs something in it to work, the answer is
no, the mere presence of the lockfile is what matters.

Philip Guenther

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