dovecot - Apr 2005 - File isn't in mbox format - Couldn't open INBOX

While I saw another thread on the list similar to the issue I was 
experiencing 
(http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/2005-February/006168.html), I was 
wondering if there was a way around this problem (the thread simply 
suggested upgrading, but are the later version (specifically the 
1.0-test releases) ready for prime time?)...

We're periodically having this with some users (not sure what client 
they are using, but I am pretty sure it is MS Outlook) where the inbox 
is in near perfect shape except for some extra characters at the 
beginning of the file.  POP or IMAP delivery fails with an error stating 
"File isn't in mbox format - Couldn't open INBOX".  It looks
like those
characters are of a previous message that was not completely removed 
from the file, and those characters seem to throw everything out of wack..

It's easily correctable by removing the bogus characters from the 
beginning of the file, but that gets annoying quickly..

-Rich

At 10:03 AM 4/14/2005, Rich West wrote:
>While I saw another thread on the list similar to the issue I was 
>experiencing 
>(http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/2005-February/006168.html), I was 
>wondering if there was a way around this problem (the thread simply 
>suggested upgrading, but are the later version (specifically the 1.0-test 
>releases) ready for prime time?)...
>
>We're periodically having this with some users (not sure what client
they
>are using, but I am pretty sure it is MS Outlook) where the inbox is in 
>near perfect shape except for some extra characters at the beginning of 
>the file.  POP or IMAP delivery fails with an error stating "File
isn't in
>mbox format - Couldn't open INBOX".  It looks like those characters
are of
>a previous message that was not completely removed from the file, and 
>those characters seem to throw everything out of wack..
>
>It's easily correctable by removing the bogus characters from the 
>beginning of the file, but that gets annoying quickly..
I see it too.  You running procmail by any chance?  In our case it appears 
to be due to file locking, with procmail grabbing the mail spool while the 
user is deleting messages.  Not sure if it is procmail specific or not, but 
the client doesn't seem to matter as it happens with pretty much all of
them.

/steve