On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 Mark Crispin Wrote:
[About File Locking mboxes over NFS]
> If you are lucky, the worst that will happen is that from time to time
an
> IMAP server will crash with the message "Unexpected changes to
mailbox";
> that is, it will detect what happened and kill itself rather than
cause
> any damage.
>
> If you are unlucky, the mailbox will be corrupted, messages will be
lost,
> etc.  If you get a message about "mailbox vulnerable" and talking
about
> 1777 protection, then you are definitely unlucky; and disabling that
> message will not remedy matters but rather simply disable the warning
of
> your misfortune.
>

Quoted from July 8: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
""> Again - from what I understood, this issue with flock() over NFS has
been
> > fixed - besides isn't that what the nfslock daemon is for?
>
> I hope not!  Those lock-over-NFS daemons are for fcntl() locking only,
and
> THEY DO NOT WORK WORTH A DAMN!  It is a *feature* that flock() does
not
> use those broken daemons.
>
> > To me this means that the documentation on file locking is relevant
to
> > us???? Although I don't feel that I fully understand the
implications.""

> The jist that you should get is that although there is basic
compatibility
> in locking between all this software, you should use companion
software
> whenever possible.
>
> For example: if you use UW imapd for your IMAP server, you should use
UW
> ipop3d for your POP3 server.  If you use Cyrus imapd for your IMAP
server,
> you should use Cyrus pop3d for your POP3 server.
>
> If you mix non-companion softare, such as UW imapd and cucipop, you
will
> have basic compatibility on locking but less compatibility than if you
use
> companion software.  To what extent this may cause problems is
uncertain.
> It is not a recommended configuration.

Thank you Mark for your response in July.
Now we are deploying a second server to do just as you reccommended and
we are putting all mail services on the same machine and to improve
performance we are separating the user space as you suggested.
We have chosen however to use UW's imapd with qpopper instead of with
ipop3d because of our experience with qpopper outperforming ipop3d by
leaps and bounds.
Are you aware of this, and has ipop3d's efficiency been improved within
the last year or two?

Also, is there any more you can say to expound upon when you said "To
what extent this may cause problems is uncertain"
What kind of things should we be looking for? Mail lost silently?
Deadlocks?

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