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Pipe to formail succeeds, simple method fails

2001-04-20 01:42:23

Hi,


I've having a problem with procmail at work. Procmail
is invoked automatically by the mail system, I don't
need a .forward file.

This works as it should:

:0:
* ^Subject:.*\<proctest\>
| formail >> Procmail-test


Namely any mail with "proctest" in the subject is
moved to the "Procmail-test" folder. But can anybody
explain to me why this simpler method fails:

:0:
* ^Subject:.*\<proctest\>
Procmail-test

What happens in this case is:

The folder "Procmail-test" is created if it doesn't
exist; a lock "Procmail-test.lock" is created.

And that's it! Things freeze at this point and the
message is never delivered.

My logfile reports the following in the first
(successful) case:

procmail: Assigning "MAILDIR=/home/user/mail"
procmail: Match on "^Subject:.*\<proctest\>"
procmail: Locking "Procmail-test.lock"
procmail: Executing " formail >> Procmail-test"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER= formail >>
Procmail-test"
procmail: Unlocking "Procmail-test.lock"
From xyz(_at_)abc  Thu Apr 19 20:37:15 2001
 Subject: proctest
  Folder:  formail >> Procmail-test                   
                    1105
procmail: Notified comsat: "user@: formail >>
Procmail-test" 

In the second (unsuccessful) case it reports:

procmail: Assigning "MAILDIR=/home/user/mail"
procmail: Match on "^Subject:.*\<proctest\>"
procmail: Locking "Procmail-test.lock"
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=Procmail-test"
procmail: Opening "Procmail-test"
procmail: Acquiring kernel-lock

and never goes any further.


Some more detail:

Trying the same thing without the lockfile (i.e. using
:0 rather than :0: in the first line of the recipe)
doesn't work either. Exactly the same happens (but
without the .lock file of course).

My .procmailrc contains:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PCMLDIR=$HOME
VERBOSE=yes
LOGABSTRACT=all
LOGFILE=$PCMLDIR/procmail.log

MAILDIR=$HOME/mail

plus the above recipe.

procmail -v reports:

procmail v3.14 1999/11/22
Locking strategies:     dotlocking, fcntl()
Default rcfile:         $HOME/.procmailrc
        It may be writable by your primary group
Your system mailbox:    /var/spool/mail/user

My work machine is running RH7.0, but the mail server
is on an Alpha running OSF1.


Clearly I can use procmail by invoking formail, but
I'm curious as to why the simple method fails.

Thanks in advance for any help,


Glenn


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