Re: [cobalt-users] POP3 lock problem - can't find .pop or .lock file

["Rob Evans" <robe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Hewitt-Long" <cobaltusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:26 PM
Subject: [cobalt-users] POP3 lock problem - can't find .pop or .lock file


> I have an admin account on a server whose mail can't be collected at the
> moment, the error message says:
>
> ERR [IN-USE] /var/spool/mail/.admin.pop lock busy!
>
> Well... there is not file by that name - and I can't a file by that name
> anywhere on the server - anything else that might produce the same error?

In /var/spool/mail/, use the command: ls -lA .*p (that's everything starting
with a dot and ending with a p) and you should see it (and others for users
currently reading their email).

When you use your POP3 email client to access your mailbox, admin, the
server copies the admin mailbox to .admin.pop (as a lock) and processes that
to give your client the mail - admin is emptied at the same time (it is 0
bytes long), ready to receive any new incoming mail.  If the transfer is
interrupted for some reason, then the .pop file is left as a lock.

I'm not exactly sure how safe it is to delete .admin.pop and wait for the
data to be restored to mailbox admin, but to be sure you might rename
.admin.pop to, say, admin.bkp (command: mv .admin.pop admin.bkp) and see if
the data is later restored to mailbox admin. If that doesn't happen, you can
restore it by using the command: cat admin.bkp>>admin (this retains any new
email in admin, as well as the ownership and permissions of the file) -
later, you can remove admin.bkp.

One of my users has been having problems with his transfers simply
suspending midstream, and leaving the .pop file.  I've had to get around
this problem by taking a copy of his mailbox (cp -p mailbox mailbox.bkp, or,
cp -p .mailbox.pop mailbox.bkp) and the editing his mailbox to get rid of
the difficult entry (using command mail -f mailbox), then using the same
command on the backup and removing all but the difficult entry (for later
attempts at retrieving it).

I could go on (as I often do when answering a simple question), but that
should suffice for the present.  You may already have solved your problem
using earlier responses, while I've been rabbitting on!

Regards, Rob E.