LOCKSPOOL(1) | General Commands Manual | LOCKSPOOL(1)

# NAME

`lockspool` — lock user's system mailbox

# SYNOPSIS

`lockspool` | [username]

# DESCRIPTION

`lockspool` is useful for a client mail program to attain proper locking. `lockspool` obtains a username.lock for the calling user and retains it until stdin is closed or a signal like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, or `SIGHUP` is received. Additionally, the superuser may specify the name of a user in order to lock a different mailbox.

If `lockspool` is able to create the lock file, “1” is written to stdout, otherwise “0” is written and an error message is written to stderr. `lockspool` will try up to 10 times to get the lock (sleeping for a short period in between tries).

Typical usage is for a user mail agent (such as mail(1)) to open a pipe to `lockspool` when it needs to lock the user's mail spool. Closing the pipe will cause `lockspool` to release the lock.

# FILES

/var/mail/username.lock
  user's mail lock file

# EXIT STATUS

The `lockspool` utility exits 0 on success, and 1 if an error occurs.

# SEE ALSO

mail(1), mail.local(8), smtpd(8)

# HISTORY

The `lockspool` program appeared in OpenBSD 2.4.

January 25, 2019 | Debian