Subject: Re: "Unexpected Changes to INBOX" - help!

From: [email-masked] (Timothy P. Cheney)
Date: 11 Oct 1996 15:25:11 GMT

Stephen:

  Just an idea...the last time you restarted sendmail on the server did
you login as root, su from your personal account, or sudo?  I recommend
you make sure you do it the first way.

Hope this hilft,

Tim

Stephen Balbach ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi,

: Solaris 2.5 SPARC. /var/mail is NFS mounted on a dedicated mail
: server.

: Problem: About every 10 minutes or whenever I need to write to my
: inbox (new mail comes in or deleteing mail) there are error messages
: regarding the INBOX and pine aborts and asks to quit and restart. The
: error messages include "INBOX length 0 aborting..".."invalid mailbox
: format".." unknown error consult an expert".. They all relate to
: the inbox and it appears the inbox is being written too when it should not
: be.

: I have tried:

: o Diffrent versions of pine
: o removing all .pinerc, .pine-conf, .pine-debug? and restarting
: o removing sent-mail and .addressbook*
: o running pine directly on the mail server (no NFS)
: o deleteing the INBOX to 0 length
: o running from a bare shell (no .login .profile .csh)
: 0 creating a new account and forwarding mail to that account. the new
:   account works on so the mail headers are fine.
: 0 watching the creation of /usr/mail/stephen.lock is created and deleted
:   when the inbox is needed to be written too. verified ok.

: Im at a loss. This problem is not effecting anyone else but me. What other
: files does pine open/use? Any help appreciated.

: I have used pine for 4 years and support a network of 6000 users using
: pine and have never seen this problem before. I have looked at it for 3
: days to no avail, it is effecting my personal account only.

: ---
: Stephen Balbach  "Driving the Internet To Work"
: VP, ClarkNet     due to the high volume of mail I receive please quote
: [email-masked]   the full original message in your reply.
: --
: ---
: Stephen Balbach  "Driving the Internet To Work"
: VP, ClarkNet     due to the high volume of mail I receive please quote
: [email-masked]   the full original message in your reply.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|  [email-masked]                                |
|  Timothy P. Cheney              (215) 898-3197        |
|  Population Studies Center                            |
|  239 McNeil/6298                                      |
|  University of Pennsylvania                           |
|  Philadelphia, PA 19104                               |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

---

From: Thorbjoern Ravn Andersen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 03:27:40 +0200

Stephen Balbach wrote:

> Problem: About every 10 minutes or whenever I need to write to my
> inbox (new mail comes in or deleteing mail) there are error messages
> regarding the INBOX and pine aborts and asks to quit and restart. The
> error messages include "INBOX length 0 aborting..".."invalid mailbox
> format".." unknown error consult an expert".. They all relate to
> the inbox and it appears the inbox is being written too when it should not
> be.

When we see stuff like that around here it is usually caused by the user 
(for some reason) running both POP3 and IMAP at the same time.

You shouldn't for some reason have tried using the Netscape Navigator
Mail facilities?  That is the usual cause here (except we don't have 
the mail NFS mounted, so the users have to set it up to the POP3 server
first).

Give Netscape brainsurgery and tell it to forget all about your mail!

Regards, 

--
  Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen		"...and...Tubular Bells!"
  http://www.dit.ou.dk/~ravn

---

From: [email-masked] (Stephen Balbach)
Date: 10 Oct 1996 22:00:55 GMT

Hi,

Solaris 2.5 SPARC. /var/mail is NFS mounted on a dedicated mail
server.

I have tried:

o Diffrent versions of pine
o removing all .pinerc, .pine-conf, .pine-debug? and restarting
o removing sent-mail and .addressbook*
o running pine directly on the mail server (no NFS)
o deleteing the INBOX to 0 length
o running from a bare shell (no .login .profile .csh)
0 creating a new account and forwarding mail to that account. the new
  account works on so the mail headers are fine.
0 watching the creation of /usr/mail/stephen.lock is created and deleted
  when the inbox is needed to be written too. verified ok.

Im at a loss. This problem is not effecting anyone else but me. What other
files does pine open/use? Any help appreciated.

I have used pine for 4 years and support a network of 6000 users using
pine and have never seen this problem before. I have looked at it for 3
days to no avail, it is effecting my personal account only.

---
Stephen Balbach  "Driving the Internet To Work"
VP, ClarkNet     due to the high volume of mail I receive please quote
[email-masked]   the full original message in your reply.
--
---
Stephen Balbach  "Driving the Internet To Work"
VP, ClarkNet     due to the high volume of mail I receive please quote
[email-masked]   the full original message in your reply.