Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!jjcrump
From: jjcrump@milton.u.washington.edu (James Crump)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: EMERGENCY_MBOX filter problem
Keywords: filter
Message-ID: <1991May6.175240.19159@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 6 May 91 17:52:40 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 41

A friend in our consulting office posted this for me a few weeks ago
but I got no response. I had thought the problem had gone away but
now, without warning, it has returned. Is this a bug (being such a
tyro I wouldn't know a bug if it bit me on the nose) or am I doing
something wrong?

The UNIX flavor we're running here is DYNIX(R) V3.0.17 and the ELM
version is ELM 2.3 PL11

My filter rules work correctly, saving to their respective files the
mail I recieve addressed to the multiple recipients of the ansax-l and
humanist mailing lists. Things go along fine for a while and I receive
my regular mail in my incoming mailbox. Then, for no apparant reason,
my regular mailbox in /usr/spool/mail disappears, and the incoming
message is dumped into my home directory in a file called
EMERGENCY_MBOX. Does anyone have a clue? The contents of the relevant
files are listed below.

#### my filter-rules file in the .elm directory reads as follows:

if (to contains "ansax-l") then save "/u8/jjcrump/Mail/Lists/ansax-l"

if (to contains "humanist") then save "/u8/jjcrump/Mail/Lists/humanist"

#### .forward file in my root directory reads as follows:
"|/usr/local/bin/filter -vo /u8/jjcrump/filt.errs"

#### the -vo flags produce a filt.errs file which reads thus:

filter (jjcrump): Mailing message to jjcrump
filter (jjcrump): Couldn't create lockfile 
filter (jjcrump): Can't open mailbox /usr/spool/mail/jjcrump!
filter (jjcrump): Using /u8/jjcrump/EMERGENCY_MBOX as emergency mailbox

Any help would be gratefully received, as I am baffled and so are the
people in our consulting office.

posting to this group or mail directly to me would be appreciated.

Jon Crump
jjcrump@milton.u.washington.edu