[Dovecot] cannot update mailbox - unable to lock for exclusive access

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 11/8/2012 5:53 PM, Ben Morrow wrote:
> At  3AM -0600 on  8/11/12 you (Stan Hoeppner) wrote:
>>
>> 1.0.7 is absolutely ancient and no longer officially supported.  You
>> need 1.2.x minimum, 2.x.x even better.  And you say you just recently
>> upgraded your Linux distro?  What planet do you live on son?  You're a
>> few light years behind current stable software.
> 
> [A light-year is a measure of distance, not of time.]

"metric fuckload" isn't a real measurement, but that doesn't stop people
from [mis]using the term to get a point across.  Don't arrogantly assume
that intentional misuse of a term equals mouth breathing or knuckle
dragging.

>> LDA completely eliminates lock contention.
> 
> As we have discussed before, using the LDA does not prevent lock
> contention, it just prevents the problems that arise when different
> software is using different locking strategies on the same mailbox
> (assuming nothing except LDA and imap is touching the mailbox directly).

You seem to have contradicted yourself.  You described lock contention
to a T, and stated Dovecot does prevents that "problem", but also said
Dovecot doesn't prevent lock contention.  File locking != lock
contention.  You can have the former without the latter.

> There are valid reasons for not using the LDA: the OP might be already
> using procmail, for instance, and have users with procmail recipies
> which sort into IMAP folders. These folders will need to be locked by
> procmail even if the default delivery to INBOX is changed (globally) to
> happen through dovecot-lda. While migrating to sieve (and mdbox, and
> LMTP) would, IMHO, be the best long-term solution, this isn't necessarily
> something that can be set up overnight.

And?  I'm failing to understand your point here.  The OP hasn't stated
yet, that I recall, if he's accessing the mbox files with anything other
than Dovecot and Postfix.  If he does state this, we'll make further
recommendations as to how get across the LDA bridge with the same
functionality, or if it's workable.  None of that precludes making the
LDA recommendation.  Most people already running procmail or local UNIX
MUAs are savvy enough to discover LDA before hitting this list.  So you
can assume with some surety that the OP who doesn't know about LDA
likely isn't using procmail, mutt, pine, etc.  Sure there are
exceptions, but this is normally the case.

I think the problem here, given the tone of your prose above and
correcting me on the use of "light year" of all damn things, is that my
earlier praise directed at you due to your slightly greater knowledge of
the intricacies of file locking, has given you the impression that I'm
some kind of knuckle dragging noob in need of education by you.  If that
is the case please read my last 500 posts to this list to dispel that
misconception.

You are my peer, not my superior.  Keep that in mind in your future
correspondence.

-- 
Stan