🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7521@fluke.COM> jeff@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Stearns) writes:
> In article <588@dtscp1.UUCP> scott@dtscp1.UUCP (Scott Barman) writes:
> > Does /usr/.../*.lock work on both of these?  I know that our v7-like
> > system uses the execute bit, but I do not have the sources to the other
> > systems.
> I had the unfortunate occasion to study mailbox locking under SunOS 4.0; my
> findings might be of interest to you and others on the net.

The use of .../mail/*.lock is not uncommon -- Mail should also use flock,
but if it doesn't, then it's another unfortunate problem with Mail.  The
best thing to do is use both mechanisms if you're not sure or intending to
port your beast to other unix systems.

If you use the .lock mechanism (I term it "dot-locking" in mush), then the
binary has to be setgid to the group of whatever owns /usr/spool/mail (or
whatever the directory is for your system).  I presume that Sun's Mail is
indeed setgid, but if it isn't and it is trying to create the .lock file,
it should be setgid.  If it is setgid, I'm sure that they have taken the
obvious precausion to unset the group id mode when not attempting to create
this file.

[soap-box]
If you are concerned that Mail is going to lose mail or corrupt your folders,
then don't use it.  There are plenty of as-good-or-better alternatives than
Mail that are available to you for free.
[end of soap-box]

Dan Heller	<island!argv@sun.com>