Cc: procmail(_at_)informatik(_dot_)rwth-aachen(_dot_)de
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 23:53:18 -0600
From: Philip Guenther <guenther(_at_)gac(_dot_)edu>
Arrigo Benedetti <arrigo(_at_)vision(_dot_)caltech(_dot_)edu> writes:
>I installed and configured procmail a few weeks ago on a SunOS/Solaris
>mixed environment (SunOS 4.1.3 mail server and Solaris client) and it
>has been working apparently with no problem since my friendly system
>manager informed me that several procmail processes were eating cpu
>time on the server ...
>
>This is what I found in the log file:
>
>6262:procmail: Couldn't unlock "/var/spool/mail/arrigo.lock"
>6266:procmail: Couldn't unlock "/var/spool/mail/arrigo.lock"
>6342:procmail: Forcing lock on "/var/spool/mail/arrigo.lock"
>6352:procmailprocmail: Terminating prematurely whilst waiting for a
kernel-loc
k
>6353:: Terminating prematurely whilst waiting for a kernel-lock
...
>I've checked and, yes, I have write permission in /var/spool/mail/.
>I've tried to restrict the file locking methods as indicated
>in the FAQ with no success. I need to fix this otherwise the sys
>manager will be soon mad at me. Would having procmail suid root help?
It's very unlikely that having procmail suid will change anything
here. Three questions: what locking methods did procmail decide upon
(you can just include the output of "procmail -v"), did you include the
Locking strategies: dotlocking, flock()
Default rcfile: $HOME/.procmailrc
Your system mailbox: /var/spool/mail/arrigo
mailspool directory (or some directory similarly mounted) in the
locking tests,
this is a good point, I will recompile procmail giving the mail spool
directory
and what program do you use to read your email?
I use Emacs gnus to read the messages coming from several mailing
lists that procmail delivers to different files, and Emacs rmail to
read the messages that procmail does not filter.
-Arrigo