[Dovecot] Dovecot and fcntl errors

[Eric Joe]

Hello,

I am new to the list and after searching the net for a solution to this
problem, I have yet to find it. Maybe someone here can help. I had been
using Dovecot that came with FC2 for about 1200 POP3 and IMAP mail
accounts. At random times (1-5 days) an imap process would run the cpu
usage up to 99% on one of my cpus (Running SMP P3-866) and hang. That
process was unkillable and only a reboot would fix the problem. If I let
it go, eventually it would lock up the server completely. I am seeing this
error in my /var/log/maillog

<snip>
Oct  4 08:23:21 ns2 imap(editorial): Timeout while waiting for release of
exclusive
fcntl() lock for index file /home/editorial/mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index
Oct  4 23:00:10 ns2 imap(jimar5573): Timeout while waiting for release of
exclusive
fcntl() lock for index file /home/jimar5573/mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index
Oct  4 23:02:10 ns2 imap(jimar5573): Timeout while waiting for release of
exclusive
fcntl() lock for index file /home/jimar5573/mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index
Oct  4 23:04:10 ns2 imap(jimar5573): Timeout while waiting for release of
exclusive
fcntl() lock for index file /home/jimar5573/mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index
</snip>


I have since upgrade (built from source) Dovecot 0.99.11 and have been
running for 2 days without a hung process or lockup, but I still see these
errors in the maillog. Can anyone suggest a fix?


Regards
Eric