> -----Original Message-----
> From: Philip Hazel [mailto:ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk]
> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 8:46 AM
> To: Suresh Ramasubramanian
> Cc: jai.s@???; exim-users@???
> Subject: Re: [Exim] NFS with EXIM
>
>
> On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
>
> > At 14:57 22/01/80 +0530, Jai Kumar Shinde wrote:
> > >LOG: 0 MAIN
> > > == p6126856-1@??? <jai@???>
> > > T=virtual_local_delivery defer (-9): failed to lock mailbo
> > >x /mail/p/6/1/p6126856-1 (fcntl)
> >
> > Don't use mbox format over NFS. Switch to something like
> maildir (use
> > courier imap). See the exim FAQ.
>
> That is what a lot of people tell you. Nevertheless, many big sites
> (including ours) do this, and do not suffer problems. (We use Network
> Appliance fileservers.)
>
> I suspect your problem is that the lock daemon is not running
> at one or
> the other (or both) ends. You can use the exim_lock utility to run
> experiments on mailbox locking.
>
While it is generally safe to use mbox format over nfs, there are a lot of
problems associated with it - race conditions, etc. We also use network
appliance filers and ran into a problem once where the lock daemon on the
filer hung - for which there's no workaround other than rebooting the filer.
With maildir we could continue running even with no locking available.
Thanks,
Matt
--
Matthew J. Zito
Systems Engineer
Register.com, Inc., 11th Floor, 575 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018
Ph: 212-798-9205
PGP Key Fingerprint: 4E AC E1 0B BE DD 7D BC D2 06 B2 B0 BF 55 68 99
