procmail
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Re: Trouble with procmail v3.13.1: dot file locking

1999-05-18 08:57:55

   >   Oops --- there's a big fwack of the problem; why unlink the tmp file?
   >   This problem would disappear with two changes, simple to describe
   >   (though I don't know how they will be to implement). First one is,
   >   don't unlink that tmp file; the lock attempt loop should have just
   >   two syscalls, link(2) and sleep(3).
   >
   >   And second, that loop, like any retry loop, should be using exponential
   >   backoff. Personally I don't like **2 backoff; fibo is quick enough,
   >   and even cheaper to compute.
   >
   >   This pair of fixes will basically take care of procmail's part of
   >   the problem, though making sure you acquire a kernel lock (if kernel
   >   locks are available) before attempting to create the dotlock file
   >   would help with the remaining problem.


Those are two very good ideas, I think. I think that procmail 
does use kernel locks too if you let it, but I've turned them off in
config.h to avoid any problems with locking over NFS.

-- 
Gjermund Sorseth