ben@??? said:
} Is it a "bad idea" to let more than one server append mail to a shared
} NFS-mounted /var/spool/mail/user mail spool directory.?
Assuming you are using a standard mbox format or other multiple mails per
file approach (and also many single mails per file approach).
Its not just bad. Its suicidal, stupid, unsafe and guaranteed to fail.
Linux does not support inode locking over NFS in kernels 2.0.x (it should
in 2.1.x but thats unstable). Dot locking is at best a work round, but
fails sometimes, and *will* fail under load from several servers.
If you use IMAP, then mount the spool locally and *only* IMAP access to it
(other than exim delivery) - this is also a much cleaner model.
[actually a single Linux box does self-lock consistantly on NFS]
Nigel.
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[ Nigel.Metheringham@??? - Systems Software Engineer ]
[ Tel : +44 113 207 6112 Fax : +44 113 234 6065 ]
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