On Mon, 10 Mar 1997 05:42:07 +0200 (EET), I wrote:
Naive and dangerous way to do it:
$ # Kids, don't try this at home
$ cp /var/spool/mail/walt /tmp/inbox && echo -n >/var/spool/mail/walt
A slightly more atomic and thus less dangerous operation would be to
just rename the spool file. Again, you might not have the permissions.
$ mv /var/spool/mail/walt /var/spool/mail/walt.moving.to.venice
After this, there's no need to lock on this second file, but you
should probably take care to recreate /var/spool/mail/walt with the
correct permissions before somebody else does it for you ;-)
Also, don't leave temp files hanging in the mail spool, or your admin
will get you.
Sorry for following up on myself like this. I'll stop now, I promise.
/* era */
"slightly more atomic"? I should go back to sleep
--
Defin-i-t-e-ly. Sep-a-r-a-te. Gram-m-a-r. <http://www.iki.fi/~era/>
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