Several times a week I get an entry like this in my log file:
From debian-user(_at_)lists(_dot_)debian(_dot_)org Wed Jul 23 01:29:37 1997
Subject: Re: Adaptec 2940Ultra Wide PCI SCSI Host Adapter
Folder: list.debian.in 1890
Folder: /home/gtl1/MailIn/mbox.in 1
An extra character is written to mbox.in (my DEFAULT mailbox), which
then goes on to cause problems with my mail-reader (which is
Gnus).
Extracting the message from my backup directory, I cannot see anything
unusual about it, but I don't really know what I am looking for. If I
resubmit the message with
formail -s procmail -m .procmailrc < badmessage
then it works OK.
I've thought about it being a locking problem, but
1) there are no other log entries for several minutes either side of
the offending one;
2) it was the middle of the night and my mail reader wasn't running,
let alone trying to read the spool files;
3) the delivery mailboxes are on an NFS mounted disk; procmail is the
only program writing to them, and it is compiled to use dotlocking;
4) all the delivery recipes in my .procmailrc have local locking (I
am assuming that when a message "drops off the end" and gets put in
the DEFAULT file, then that file is locked too).
I have now switched on verbose logging to see if that sheds any light
next time it happens. But in the mean time, any ideas what can be
causing the extra character?
--
Gilbert Laycock email:
gtl1(_at_)mcs(_dot_)le(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk
Maths and Computer Science, http://www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~glaycock
Leicester University phone: (+44) 116 252 3902