Fixing your mail

Sometimes when you try to retrieve your mail using a POP client such as Eudora or Outlook, you get an error message such as:

-ERR [IN-USE] /var/mail/.user.pop lock busy! Is another session active?

where 'user' is your user name. This happens because your mail client did not finish its work, and left the .user.pop file in the system mailbox.

This can be fixed, if you can login to the server and issue a simple command. To login to the server, you must use a secure terminal emulator client such as dataComet-Secure for Macs or SecureCRT for PC's. If you don't have one of these, they are available free from Penn ISC's Supported Computing Products page.

You also need to know your password to login. When you login, this is what you should see something like this:

*****************************************
*                                       *
*       University of Pennsylvania      *
*       School of Dental Medicine       *
*                                       *
*             Origin 300                *
*           IRIX       6.5.28           *
*       biochem.dental.upenn.edu        *
*      research.dental.upenn.edu        *
*          path.dental.upenn.edu        *  
*                                       *
*****************************************

Progress, far from consisting in change,
depends on retentiveness; when experience
is not retained, as among savages, infancy is
perpetual.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it....This is the condition of children
and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing
from experience.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)

You have mail.
biochem 1%

At the unix prompt enter the command: /usr/local/bin/mailfix You should see something like this:

biochem 1% /usr/local/bin/mailfix
Lockfile /var/mail/.user.pop exists
Contents of /var/mail/.user.pop added to user's mailbox
Lockfile /var/mail/.user.pop removed
Mail should now work normally

where 'user' is your username.
Logout and try your mail again. It should now be accessible.

If you still need help contact Dr. Ellis E. Golub (ellis@biochem.dental.upenn.edu)