On 2006-10-30 at 20:59 -0500, Grant Peel wrote:
> every once in a while, I get a mail account that I have to delete and 
> reinstall ... here is the indicator:
> 
> 2006-10-30 05:49:52 1GeSHv-000A5B-Do == [EMAIL PROTECTED] R=virtual_localuser 
> T=virtual_localdelivery defer (-9): failed to lock mailbox 
> /var/spool/virtual/BBBB.com/AAAA (fcntl/flock)
> 
> Oddly enough, when this happens, there is no .lock file to be found.

There won't be a .lock file when fcntl/flock are used.  Those are
in-kernel metadata associated with the file.

One option is lsof/fuser/whichever with the filename to see what has it
open.

Another option is that you have a kernel bug and locks have been leaked.
Hopefully this is much less likely than that another process has the
lock open.  Locks _shouldn't_ be able to linger past process exit
because they're automatically released when the open file-descriptor is
closed and the kernel ensures that this happens, no matter how the
process ends.

> Again, all that seems to work is to delete the account and reinstall it.

So that removes the file, including any locks help on it.  So the
lock-count on the file was non-zero.  So lsof(8) or fuser(1/1m) or
whichever your OS provides is the first step to identifying the rogue
process.

Regards,
-Phil

-- 
## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users 
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/

Reply via email to