Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!imagen!geof From: geof@imagen.UUCP (Geoffrey Cooper) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: sendmail problem Summary: locked file? Message-ID: <1793@imagen.UUCP> Date: 17 Aug 88 20:45:46 GMT References: <8808162127.AA08397@cod.nosc.mil> Organization: IMAGEN Corporation, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8101 Lines: 29 In article <8808162127.AA08397@cod.nosc.mil>, dennis@PEANUTS.NOSC.MIL (Dennis Cottel) writes: > We are running SR9.7, TCP3.1beta. Sendmail is running on a DSP80A Us too. > say "554 \dennis... unknown mailer error 1" with the accompanying > message > mail: cannot append to /usr/spool/mail/dennis > mail: can't send to dennis > or maybe just "554 \dennis... unknown mailer error 2". We've seen this too. I believe it is indicative of /bin/mail (which is invoked by sendmail) hitting a locked file. This is an unknown error since a Unix program should never hit a locked file, since Unix doesn't have file locking. Sometimes the problem is that someone just happens to be reading their mail just as the sendmail is happening. This is understandably rare. Sometimes the problem is some other program (e.g., a mail reader program) that keeps the mail file open or opens it periodically to check for mail). I believe that if a system crashes (or the boot button is pressed!) while the mail file is open, the mail system can decide that the file is locked when the locker doesn't believe it is. Then the mail file stays locked until....? I fix that by crp'ing onto the supposed locker node (obtained using llkob) and running "ulkob -f". - Geof-- UUCP: {decwrl,sun}!imagen!geof ARPA: imagen!geof@decwrl.dec.com