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Re: locking

2006-10-28 21:59:37
On 10/28/06, David W. Tamkin <dattier(_at_)panix(_dot_)com> wrote:

Years ago someone on this list insisted to me off-list that only
maildirs were invulnerable to race condition problems and could be used
safely without lockfiles, that classic procmail directories and MH
folders could potentially have trouble.  None of his argument made
sense, but that could be because I didn't understand it all.

MH directories can be vulnerable because there is a single "sequences"
file that keeps track of some meta-data, including which number to use
for the next file created (if there are 87 messages in the directory
and you delete number 87, the next one is still supposed to be created
as number 88).  However, IIRC procmail doesn't bother to examine or
maintain the sequences file, so you're unlikely to get any
*additional* brokenness from lack of locking.

"Classic" procmail directories are no more vulnerable than maildirs.

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