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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: How are mailfiles locked under 4.n and System III/V?
Message-ID: <8051@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-May-87 19:40:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8051
Posted: Tue May 19 19:40:22 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 19-May-87 19:40:22 EDT
References: <7384@boring.mcvax.cwi.nl>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 9

> I know about V7 (make a file /usr/tmp/lock.USERNAME, yuck) and
> 2.9BSD (set the execute bits, slightly-less-yuck)...

Actually considerably-*more*-yuck, because the execute-bits approach has
race conditions that can result in lost mail and corrupted mailboxes.  I
fixed this here after it happened to *my* mailbox once too often.
-- 
"The average nutritional value    Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
of promises is roughly zero."     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry