Re: locking

On 10/28/06, Bart Schaefer <barton(_dot_)schaefer(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
> 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.
Never having used /bin/mail extensively, I believe the "solution" to
this was to block procmail (via a lockfile) from delivering mail while
you were accessing the MH mailbox with your mailer.  There is an
example of this in the "examples" directory in the source code, which
I've attached.

Of course, this means that no mail would be delivered until you exited
your mailer.  If the TIMEOUT variables were in use at the time these
examples were written, you would not be able to keep your mailer open
for longer than 20 minutes.

--
-- Matt Dunford -- zenmatic(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com

3procmailrc
Description: Text document

3rmail
Description: Text document

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