I've been running nmh-1.3 on Mac OS X 5.5 for a month or so. I use fetchmail and procmail to retrieve messages from a POP3 server, and all the procmail recipes use rcvstore to file the messages in various folders. This has been working perfectly until the last couple of days. Suddenly, I started seeing messages like:
rcvstore: eof encountered in field "7" rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly formatted rcvstore: eof encountered in field "400" rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly formatted
Any clues about this? If only rcvstore is touching the .mh_sequences file, what could be corrupting it?
On Oct 15, 11:41 pm, pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been running nmh-1.3 on Mac OS X 5.5 for a month or so. I use > fetchmail and procmail to retrieve messages from a POP3 server, and > all the procmail recipes use rcvstore to file the messages in various > folders. This has been working perfectly until the last couple of > days. Suddenly, I started seeing messages like:
> rcvstore: eof encountered in field "7" > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > formatted > rcvstore: eof encountered in field "400" > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > formatted
> Any clues about this? If only rcvstore is touching the .mh_sequences > file, what could be corrupting it?
Just to add some info:
1) Deleting .mh_sequences doesn't solve the problem. It just gets recreated, and the messages start again.
2) When I tried to exit the Mac Terminal program, I was prompted about killing a bunch of background rcvstore processes, so I'm guessing that procmail is running this asynchronously, and that's what's causing the problem ... multiple rcvstore processes trying to hit on the .mh_sequences file at once. My next step is to look at making procmail run synchronously.
pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Oct 15, 11:41 pm, pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I've been running nmh-1.3 on Mac OS X 5.5 for a month or so. I use > > fetchmail and procmail to retrieve messages from a POP3 server, and > > all the procmail recipes use rcvstore to file the messages in various > > folders. This has been working perfectly until the last couple of > > days. Suddenly, I started seeing messages like:
> > rcvstore: eof encountered in field "7" > > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > > formatted > > rcvstore: eof encountered in field "400" > > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > > formatted
> > Any clues about this? If only rcvstore is touching the .mh_sequences > > file, what could be corrupting it?
> Just to add some info:
> 1) Deleting .mh_sequences doesn't solve the problem. It just gets > recreated, and the messages start again.
> 2) When I tried to exit the Mac Terminal program, I was prompted about > killing a bunch of background rcvstore processes, so I'm guessing that > procmail is running this asynchronously, and that's what's causing the > problem ... multiple rcvstore processes trying to hit on > the .mh_sequences file at once. My next step is to look at making > procmail run synchronously.
I've seen this a from time to time over the years, and not all that often. The issue is that the file really does get poorly formated, and I wish I knew where. Here's a correctly formated example:
cur: 18 pseq: 31 unseen: 31
Here's a bad one:
cur: 18 31 unseen: 31
I always see a number on a line by itself when I get that error message. If I edit the file and just remove that line, then all is well again. This has worked for me every time on SunOS, Solaris, and Linux with many versions of MH, nmh, Xmh and exmh.
I hope that helps...
-- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.
> pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Oct 15, 11:41 pm, pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I've been running nmh-1.3 on Mac OS X 5.5 for a month or so. I use > > > fetchmail and procmail to retrieve messages from a POP3 server, and > > > all the procmail recipes use rcvstore to file the messages in various > > > folders. This has been working perfectly until the last couple of > > > days. Suddenly, I started seeing messages like:
> > > rcvstore: eof encountered in field "7" > > > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > > > formatted > > > rcvstore: eof encountered in field "400" > > > rcvstore: /Users/peterdavis/Mail/spam/.mh_sequences is poorly > > > formatted
> > > Any clues about this? If only rcvstore is touching the .mh_sequences > > > file, what could be corrupting it?
> > Just to add some info:
> > 1) Deleting .mh_sequences doesn't solve the problem. It just gets > > recreated, and the messages start again.
> > 2) When I tried to exit the Mac Terminal program, I was prompted about > > killing a bunch of background rcvstore processes, so I'm guessing that > > procmail is running this asynchronously, and that's what's causing the > > problem ... multiple rcvstore processes trying to hit on > > the .mh_sequences file at once. My next step is to look at making > > procmail run synchronously.
> I've seen this a from time to time over the years, and not all that > often. The issue is that the file really does get poorly formated, and > I wish I knew where. Here's a correctly formated example:
> cur: 18 > pseq: 31 > unseen: 31
> Here's a bad one:
> cur: 18 > 31 > unseen: 31
> I always see a number on a line by itself when I get that error message. > If I edit the file and just remove that line, then all is well again. > This has worked for me every time on SunOS, Solaris, and Linux with many > versions of MH, nmh, Xmh and exmh.
> I hope that helps...
Thanks. This is similar to what I've seen in some cases, but I've also seen it fail when the .mh_sequences file is empty.
More and more I suspect the problem lies with multiple child processes spawned by procmail, all trying to read/write the .mh_sequences file at once. The procmail lockfile method should prevent that, but I haven't figured out how to make that work yet.
Well, I did get lockfiles working in procmail, so we'll see if that fixes the problem. As I mentioned, I had been using this setup for a month and a half with no errors, so I don't know how long to run before I can consider the problem solved.
pd <pfda...@gmail.com> wrote: > Well, I did get lockfiles working in procmail, so we'll see if that > fixes the problem. As I mentioned, I had been using this setup for a > month and a half with no errors, so I don't know how long to run > before I can consider the problem solved.
How did you get the lockfiles working?
Thanks....
-- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.
pd <pfda...@gmail.com> writes: > Well, I did get lockfiles working in procmail, so we'll see if that > fixes the problem. As I mentioned, I had been using this setup for a > month and a half with no errors, so I don't know how long to run > before I can consider the problem solved.
What was the workaround ? I mean for lockfiles. I have the same problem with multiple instances of rcvstore.
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