From owner-freebsd-questions Wed May 15 9:15:16 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from sage-one.net (adsl-65-71-135-137.dsl.crchtx.swbell.net [65.71.135.137]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3242737B406 for ; Wed, 15 May 2002 09:15:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: from SAGEONE (sageone [192.168.0.5]) by sage-one.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id g4FGF5a15933; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:15:06 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from jackstone@sage-one.net) Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20020515111503.0301aa40@mail.sage-one.net> X-Sender: jackstone@mail.sage-one.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 11:15:03 -0500 To: Dan Nelson From: "Jack L. Stone" Subject: Re: Zapping Email Box Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <20020515155855.GP8958@dan.emsphone.com> References: <3.0.5.32.20020515094741.0118be50@mail.sage-one.net> <3.0.5.32.20020515094741.0118be50@mail.sage-one.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 10:58 AM 5.15.2002 -0500, Dan Nelson wrote: >In the last episode (May 15), Jack L. Stone said: >> Running FBSD-4.5 RELEASE with sendmail-8.11.6 and Qpopper >> >> As part of a daily digest mailing at midnight, I have a cron job that >> copies a mailbox contents to a work file, then a script strips out the >> extra header "noise" and sends out the nice clean digest to its members. In >> order to cut off the mail box at precisely midnight, I have been "zapping" >> the email box to zero it out in order to start another day's collection of >> emails right after midnight. I use this command to "zap" the email box: >> #echo > mymailbox >> >> What always worries me is that one of these times, the zap will be made at >> a time when the box is "active" with mail throughput and I may break or >> corrupt something. I know I could launch an email client to download the >> box to empty it, but that adds another possible variable to break the >> routine and not clean out the box timely.... the cron time is set at >> exactly 23.59 so there is only that 1 minute to do the zapping or cleanout >> of the box. > >So lock the mailbox while you're messing with it. The procmail port >provides a "lockfile" command that will dotlock any arbitrary file, >with special flags for handling /var/mail/$USERNAME. I use it in all >my mail-archiving scripts. In general, you should lock a mailbox any >time you read or write to it. > >-- > Dan Nelson > dnelson@allantgroup.com Yes, you are right.... the "lock" is the answer, and lack of it is what concerned me about my method..... but I don't use procmail..... I use Pine... I could install procmail I suppose, but just for this one thing seems overkill. Will the procmail launch by a cron launch... or other wise??? .... our website: http://www.sage-one.net/ Best regards, Jack L. Stone Server Admin To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message