Permission Problem

[Bill vance]

On 8/12/14, David Fletcher <dave at thefletchers.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 2014-08-10 at 02:47 -0700, Bill vance wrote:
>> Howdy folks;
>>
>> I've got a really nasty permission problem in my incoming
>> email directory.
>>
>
> I've been watching this for a little while.
>
> I don't know how to fix your current problem but would like to offer the
> following:-
>
> No way would I call myself a Linux expert, but as I've been running my
> own server for maybe 6 or 7 years I think I know more than the average
> person in the street.
>
> My server is in its second version. First time around, I seem to recall
> using fetchmail with cron to use pop3 to download email from my boxes at
> 1&1, passing it on to postfix for distribution to mbox files.
>
> Speaking to a friend who definitely IS an expert, there are various
> problems and potential problems with mbox, one being your permission
> problems. The other big one is file locking - you've got at least two
> processes using the same mbox file - delivery and retrieval. For me it
> seemed to work but I was never happy, knowing that it could potentially
> all go wrong.
>
> On the current, second iteration of my server, it's running Ubuntu
> Server 10.04. I'm now using SMTP direct to my server, by editing my MX
> record and going via no-ip, with postfix.
>
> The important thing is, I abandoned the mbox format and switched to
> Maildir. This, I was told by my expert friend, is way superior for more
> than one reason, especially the fact that every message is in its own
> separate file so you don't have the locking problem.
>
> Obviously I need to update my server sometime this year because 10.04 is
> going to be out of LTS, but I have already tried building a 14.04 server
> virtual machine, restored a backup of all the user data, and I can
> access all my email on that machine with dovecot/evolution with no great
> difficulty.
>
> So the advice I would like to offer is, stop messing around with mbox,
> get all of your messages out in whatever way you can into your mail
> client, set up your mail machine to use:-
>
> Maildir
> IMAP
>
> and I think your troubles will be gone.
>
> Dave

Excuse me Dave, but exactly how is changing mail transfer protocols supposed
to free up multiple email reading programs that have somehow been locked out
of their files?

Bill