Subject: Re: INBOX.lock problem: can't read my mail!

From: [email-masked] (Tim Mooney)
Date: 23 Aug 1996 12:29:28 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
Pierre-Luc Bisaillion  <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I am using PINE 3.91 on a UNIX machine, and for two days I haven't been 
> able to get any mail.  I am not sure if the problem is directly related to 
> PINE, but any help would be greatly appreciated! (I have asked the admin
> here, but he couldn't fix the problem...)
> 
> Here are the symptoms:
> * I can't receive mail (!!!)
> * I can open PINE, and view the same INBOX as two days ago.  Never any new 
>   message (and some have been sent).  I can browse through all my folders.

If your INBOX is on the same machine as you, find it and use 'ls -l' to list
the size of the file.  Likely places to look for your INBOX would be:

	/var/spool/mail/bizz
or
	/usr/spool/mail/bizz
or
	/var/mail/bizz

If you can't find it, ask your administrator where your mail `spool file'
is located.

Once you find it, use the ls -l command and check the size.

Now send yourself some email (or have a friend send you some), wait a while,
and then check the size of the file.  If the size hasn't changed then the mail
isn't even getting to you.  If the size has changed, but you can't see the
new message when you enter pine, then it's a problem with your INBOX.

If it turns out that the size of the INBOX changed (increased) but you 
can't see the new message then ask your system administrator to look through
the file with a tool that can spot control characters and other characters out
of the normal printable range.  `less' or `od -c' should work.  The sysadmin
should be looking for out-of-band characters in the email headers of the
various messages in your INBOX.  If you find any, that's more than likely the
problem.  You'll need to use an editor or command to delete the characters
from your spool file.

If all else fails, ask your admin to rename your spool file, and try sending
yourself another message.  A new spool file will be created for you, and from
then on you should be able read the messages that get appended to that file.
To view the messages in your old spool file, use a command like `more' or
`less'.

Tim
-- 
Tim Mooney                              [email-masked]
Information Technology Services         (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J1, IACC Bldg.                 (701) 231-8541 (FAX)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105

---

From: Pierre-Luc Bisaillion <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 11:29:09 +0300

Hi!

Here are the symptoms:
* I can't receive mail (!!!)
* I can open PINE, and view the same INBOX as two days ago.  Never any new 
  message (and some have been sent).  I can browse through all my folders.
* I can send mail
* When I try to quit PINE, it freezes!  Then a $USER.lock file is created
  in the directory where my INBOX is, i.e. /usr/mail/bizz.lock.  
  I can delete it but PINE stays frozen and I have to kill the process.
* I looked at the .pine-debug files, and I have found this suspicious line:

IMAP 11:16 8/22 mm_log babble: Find of mailbox outside context: 
/u/tlt/bizz/.pine-interrupted-mail

Any ideas?  Any comments/ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much!

-- 
Pierre-Luc

**************************************************************************
Pierre-Luc Bisaillon                /\                  [email-masked]
                                    \/           Communications Laboratory    
homepage:                           /\   Helsinki University of Technology
http://www.ee.mcgill.ca/~bizz       \/                     Espoo,  Finland
**************************************************************************