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Re: Confused about locking

2009-10-10 12:04:16
James Michael Fultz wrote:
* Paul Gardiner <lists(_at_)glidos(_dot_)net> [2009-10-10 11:10 +0100]:
How do you ensure correct locking on maildir folders? I
have three things accessing mine: procmail, mailx and
courier imap. Do they agree on some sort of convention
for locking?

Section MISCELLANEOUS in procmail(1):

"When  delivering  to directories, MH folders, or maildir folders, you
don't need to use lockfiles to prevent several concurrently running
procmail programs from messing up."

Brilliant! Thanks, I missed that clause completely.

Also:
<http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html>

"Two words: no locks. An MUA can read and delete messages while new mail
is being delivered: each message is stored in a separate file with a
unique name, so it isn't affected by operations on other messages. An
MUA doesn't have to worry about partially delivered mail: each message
is safely written to disk in the tmp subdirectory before it is moved to
new. The maildir format is reliable even over NFS."

Just out of interest, what about with files in mailbox format?

P.

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