Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU> writes:

> I am old-fashioned about some things.  Feel free to __add__ flock().
> But never, ever _remove_ bellmail-style locking.   It's the only
> one that works reliably  over NFS[*].   Personally, I prefer the
> locking order that IDA sendmail's binmail replacement used.
> but I guess

I thought about that.  The "best" way is perhaps to do an flock(), then
a dot lock.  That way, programs which use flock() will be blocked right
away, and those which rely on the dot lock will also win.  If you don't
get the dot lock, however, what do you do?  Release the flock() and back
out?

IMHO, using mail over NFS is one quick way to loose, since as far as I know
even using dot locking isn't reliable.

--Michael