We're having some problems with long delays in accessing mail.
The problem is that when dxmail is running for a user (say on
their workstation in the office), mailx takes a long time to
start (say from a telnet session coming in from the net). We
are running 3.2B, but I'm in the midst of switching to 3.2C.
Looking in the release notes, I see:
4.1.5 Defaults for Locking Mailboxes
MH and DXmail default to using lockf for locking
mailboxes. This differs from the default used by
both binmail and mailx. This is not a problem unless
NFS is used to share mailbox directories (for
example, /var/spool/mail and $HOME/Mail). If NFS is
used, then the lock style should be explicitly set.
See the mail_manual_setup(7) reference page for more
information.
The man page does have information, but I can find nothing which
will guide me to the correct choice. /var/spool/mail is NFS, /home/*
is NFS, but /var/spool/mqueue is local to each machine. Every machine
is running /usr/sbin/rpc.lockd. Any help? From the man page:
User Configurable Mail Locking
Different mailers use different methods to lock mailbox files. Digital
UNIX enables you to configure the locking style. To do this, use the
/usr/sbin/rcmgr set command to set MAILLOCKING in the /etc/rc.config file.
Valid values for MAILLOCKING are as follows:
0 Specifies lockf.
1 Specifies lockfile.
2 Specifies Multi-channel Memo Distribution Facility (MMDF). This
applies to MH only.
4 Specifies lockf.
5 Specifies that both lockf and lockfile are used.
Restrictions
Spool files are locked while being modified by using the lockf call and by
using a lock file (/var/spool/mail/$USER.lock). When spool files are NFS-
mounted the NFS lockd daemon should be running on both the client and
server machine. Any user-added program that modifies the spool area must
use lockf, the lock file method of locking, or both.
ULTRIX Version 4.3 and earlier versions use lock file locking. Queue files
(which reside in the /var/spool/mqueue directory) are locked using lockf.
Sharing mqueue over NFS is supported with NFS locking (lockd) enabled.
Jim Wright Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience
jwright_at_phy.ucsf.edu Box 0444, Room HSE-802
voice 415-502-4874 513 Parnassus Ave
fax 415-502-4848 UCSF, San Francisco, CA 94143-0444
Received on Tue Dec 19 1995 - 08:27:32 NZDT