[Dovecot] locking question

[Stewart Dean]

There are three applications that have their mitts on files on my mail 
server, which is running AIXV5.3 and UWIMAP and mbox format.  The mail 
folders and INBOXES are native to that machine, but also are NFS 
exported to a login server and a mailing list server.  All three 
machines are running the lockd daemon.

Everybody wants to lock differently
1) procmail (delivering for sendmail), which seems to want to use 
dotlocking, fcntl and lockf locking; for whatever reasons, the compile 
time tests seem to disallow flock.
2) UWIMAP which according to wiki.dovecot.org/Migration/UW uses:
mbox_read_locks = flock
mbox_write_locks = dotlock flock
3) I want to run dovecot in the same environment as I switch over, for 
which the locking strategy is supposed to be (according to 
http://wiki.dovecot.org/MboxLocking)
mbox_read_locks = fcntl
mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl

Since that same page in the wiki says. "*It's important that all 
software that's reading or writing to mboxes use the same locking 
settings.",* I had recompiled procmail so it only usedotlocking and 
fcntl (thus removing lockf in addition to the disallowed flock)...but 
now I bumped into the Migration/UW page and there looks to be a conflict.

I want to be able to run dovecot (for testing) and UWIMAP (for all 
users/production)  at the same time (but never at the same time with the 
same mailbox), but UWIMAP is doc'ed to use flock and Dovecot doesn't
It's conceivable that the different locking strategies of UWIMAP and 
Dovecot don't matter because they would never be going after the same 
mail files (right?) but there is procmail, which has to interact with 
both.  It appears to not use flock OK, even though the docs say it 
should since UWIMAP expects it, and I've disabled lockf as well.  But 
will there be a conflict with procmail and dovecot's use of fcntl, which 
UWIMAP doesn't use?

Help.
*
*

**

-- 
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Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, Henderson Computer Resources 
Center of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York  12504  
sdean at bard.edu  voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 845-758-7035