Debian bug report logs - #1710, boring messages

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
Reply-To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-From: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 09:33:02 GMT
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From: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 17:24:54 +0800 (WST)
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Package: netstd
Version: 1.18-1

popclient fails to read my mailbox whether the following error

[kryten:/home/andrew] popclient -u andrew localhost
Enter mailserver password:
kryten POP3 Server (Version 1.004) ready.
cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew

[kryten:/home/andrew] dir /var/spool/mail/andrew
-rw-rw----   1 andrew   mail         1047 Oct 20 17:12 /var/spool/mail/andrew

I have a similiar problem when using 'mail -p'

[kryten:/home/andrew] mail -p
Enter POP password:
mail: opening pop connection: -ERR cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew

Andrew

--
Dehydration - 34%, Recollection of previous evening - 2%, embarrassment
factor - 91%.  Advise repair schedule:- off line for 36 hours, re-boot
startup disk, and replace head - wow, what a night!
                -- Kryten in Red Dwarf `The Last Day'

Andrew Howell				               andrew@it.com.au
Perth, Western Australia		      howellaa@cs.curtin.edu.au

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
Subject: Bug#1710: Acknowledgement (was: popclient can't read my mail box)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6Dh8-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>
References: <m0t6Dh8-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>

Thank you for the problem report you have sent regarding Debian GNU/Linux.
This is an automatically generated reply, to let you know your message has
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If you wish to submit further information on your problem, please send
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line of your message starts with "Bug#1710" or "Re: Bug#1710" so that
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Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
Reply-To: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
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Message-Id: <m0t6Go0-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 95 13:44 BST
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: debian-bugs@Pixar.com

Andrew Howell writes ("Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box"):
> popclient fails to read my mailbox whether the following error
>
> [kryten:/home/andrew] popclient -u andrew localhost
> Enter mailserver password:
> kryten POP3 Server (Version 1.004) ready.
> cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew

This would appear to imply that popclient has been compiled to dump
mail in the standard incoming mailbox by default.  However, I see from
the manpage:

       The retrieved  messages  are  normally  appended  to  your
       default  system mailbox on the local disk, using the local
       Mail Delivery Agent (MDA),  usually  /usr/bin/mail(1),  so
       that  when  you  invoke your mail reader it can manipulate
       the retrieved messages like any other mail you receive  on
       the client machine.

       Using  the  -o  option,  you  can specify a different mail
       folder to which the retrieved messages will  be  appended.
       If  you  prefer, for example, to have your POP mail from a
       machine called 'mailgrunt' stored in the mbox file in your
       home directory, you would start popclient as follows:

              popclient -o $HOME/mbox mailgrunt

       Note  that  the  folder specified with -o is not locked or
       otherwise protected from other  processes  writing  to  it
       while popclient is writing to it.

I don't find this reassuring.  Could the popclient maintainer please
check that the correct locking *is* done for the system mailbox (it
doesn't imply that it isn't, but it doesn't say that it is), and then
document this ?

If it does lock the mailbox correctly you may well find that the
problem with `popclient localhost' is that popclient and in.pop3d are
clashing over the lock on the mailbox.  `popclient localhost' is an
inherently silly thing to do.

Furthermore, the manpage coontains the following example, which
purports to describe how to use the `-c' (squirt to stdout) option
safely:
              popclient   -k   -c   mailgrunt   |   myfilter
                  > $HOME/filtered.mail
       followed by
              popclient -c mailgrunt > /dev/null

This won't work correctly, because it has a race condition.  It would
appear that there is no safe way to use the -c option except in
conjunction with the -k option.  Could this fact be documented,
please ?

I'm pleased to see, though, that popclient appears to spot write
errors on the output file.

Thanks,
Ian.

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Bug#1710: Info received (was Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6Go0-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
References: <m0t6Go0-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#1710" or "Re: Bug#1710" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
Reply-To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-From: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
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From: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
To: ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 21:10:23 +0800 (WST)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6Go0-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> from "Ian Jackson" at Oct 20, 95 01:44:00 pm
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Ian Jackson writes:
> If it does lock the mailbox correctly you may well find that the
> problem with `popclient localhost' is that popclient and in.pop3d are
> clashing over the lock on the mailbox.  `popclient localhost' is an
> inherently silly thing to do.

Well netscape 2.0b1's mailmove program didn't have permission to
create a lock file in /var/spool/mail, and there was no way in hell
that I was going to make it setuid, so I switched it over to using
POP instead, and when that gave an error I wondered what the hell was
going on. So I tried mail and popclient and they both failed as well....

Andrew

--
Dehydration - 34%, Recollection of previous evening - 2%, embarrassment
factor - 91%.  Advise repair schedule:- off line for 36 hours, re-boot
startup disk, and replace head - wow, what a night!
                -- Kryten in Red Dwarf `The Last Day'

Andrew Howell				               andrew@it.com.au
Perth, Western Australia		      howellaa@cs.curtin.edu.au

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
Subject: Bug#1710: Info received (was Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6HDL-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>
References: <m0t6HDL-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#1710" or "Re: Bug#1710" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
Reply-To: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
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Message-Id: <m0t6HbZ-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 95 14:35 BST
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
In-Reply-To: <m0t6HDL-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>
References: <m0t6Go0-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
	<m0t6HDL-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>

Andrew Howell writes ("Re: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box"):
> Ian Jackson writes:
> > If it does lock the mailbox correctly you may well find that the
> > problem with `popclient localhost' is that popclient and in.pop3d are
> > clashing over the lock on the mailbox.  `popclient localhost' is an
> > inherently silly thing to do.
>
> Well netscape 2.0b1's mailmove program didn't have permission to
> create a lock file in /var/spool/mail, and there was no way in hell
> that I was going to make it setuid, so I switched it over to using
> POP instead, and when that gave an error I wondered what the hell was
> going on. So I tried mail and popclient and they both failed as well....

Ah.  When I said `popclient localhost' was inherently silly, this was
because it was a request to move mail from /var/spool/mail/<user> to
/var/spool/mail/<user>, which would be pointless even if it worked.

`popclient localhost -o <filename>', on the other hand, ought to
work.  It does for me.

Ian.

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Bug#1710: Info received (was Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6HbZ-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
References: <m0t6HbZ-0002YFC@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#1710" or "Re: Bug#1710" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
Reply-To: Bernd S. Brentrup <bsb@uni-muenster.de>, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-From: Bernd S. Brentrup <bsb@uni-muenster.de>
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From: Bernd S. Brentrup <bsb@uni-muenster.de>
To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell), debian-bugs@Pixar.com
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Andrew Howell writes:
>Package: netstd
>Version: 1.18-1
>
>popclient fails to read my mailbox whether the following error
>
>[kryten:/home/andrew] popclient -u andrew localhost
>Enter mailserver password:
>kryten POP3 Server (Version 1.004) ready.
>cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew
>
>[kryten:/home/andrew] dir /var/spool/mail/andrew
>-rw-rw----   1 andrew   mail         1047 Oct 20 17:12 /var/spool/mail/andrew
>
>I have a similiar problem when using 'mail -p'
>
>[kryten:/home/andrew] mail -p
>Enter POP password:
>mail: opening pop connection: -ERR cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew
>
>Andrew
>
>--
>Dehydration - 34%, Recollection of previous evening - 2%, embarrassment
>factor - 91%.  Advise repair schedule:- off line for 36 hours, re-boot
>startup disk, and replace head - wow, what a night!
>                -- Kryten in Red Dwarf `The Last Day'
>
>Andrew Howell				               andrew@it.com.au
>Perth, Western Australia		      howellaa@cs.curtin.edu.au
>

Look suspiciously like the one I reported in Bug #1704 (with fix)

-- Siggy (the middle S.)

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Bernd S. Brentrup <bsb@uni-muenster.de>
Subject: Bug#1710: Info received (was Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box)
In-Reply-To: <m0t6HdQ-00017xC@bora.uni-muenster.de>
References: <m0t6HdQ-00017xC@bora.uni-muenster.de>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#1710" or "Re: Bug#1710" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: tobias@et-inf.fho-emden.de
In-Reply-To: <9510221425.AA02602@server.et-inf.fho-emden.de>
References: <9510221425.AA02602@server.et-inf.fho-emden.de> <m0t6Dh8-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>
Subject: Bug#1710: marked as done (was: popclient can't read my mail box)

Your message dated Sun, 22 Oct 1995 15:25:21 +0100 (MET)
with message-id <9510221425.AA02602@server.et-inf.fho-emden.de>
and subject line Bug#1710: popclient can't read my mail box
has caused the attached bug report to be marked as done.

It is your now responsibility to ensure that the bug report is dealt
with.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what I'm
talking about this indicates a serious mail system misconfiguration
somewhere.  Please contact me immediately.)

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

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From: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
Subject: popclient can't read my mail box
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 17:24:54 +0800 (WST)
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Package: netstd
Version: 1.18-1

popclient fails to read my mailbox whether the following error

[kryten:/home/andrew] popclient -u andrew localhost
Enter mailserver password:
kryten POP3 Server (Version 1.004) ready.
cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew

[kryten:/home/andrew] dir /var/spool/mail/andrew
-rw-rw----   1 andrew   mail         1047 Oct 20 17:12 /var/spool/mail/andrew

I have a similiar problem when using 'mail -p'

[kryten:/home/andrew] mail -p
Enter POP password:
mail: opening pop connection: -ERR cannot open mailbox /var/spool/mail/andrew

Andrew

--
Dehydration - 34%, Recollection of previous evening - 2%, embarrassment
factor - 91%.  Advise repair schedule:- off line for 36 hours, re-boot
startup disk, and replace head - wow, what a night!
                -- Kryten in Red Dwarf `The Last Day'

Andrew Howell				               andrew@it.com.au
Perth, Western Australia		      howellaa@cs.curtin.edu.au

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: andrew@kryten.it.com.au (Andrew Howell)
Subject: Bug#1710 acknowledged by developer (was: popclient can't read my mail box)
References: <9510221425.AA02602@server.et-inf.fho-emden.de> <m0t6Dh8-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <m0t6Dh8-000AZYC@kryten.it.com.au>

This is an automatic notification regarding your bug report.

Responsibility for it has been taken by one of the developers, namely
"Peter Tobias" <tobias@server.et-inf.fho-emden.de> (reply to tobias@et-inf.fho-emden.de).

You should be hearing from them with a substantive response shortly, if
you have not already done so.  If not, please contact them directly,
or email debian-bugs@pixar.com or myself.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk, with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism

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