Ok, well I'm sure that this is really basic, but I am having a nightmare working it out.
I've looked at Mail::Folder::Mbox, but I don't like this limitation (it's the same problem that I'm having) :
<quote>* Mark it as readonly if the folder is not writable.</QUOTE>

I just want to truncate a mailbox in place (standard UNIX format) after copying all the mail out of it for a play by mail game that I'm writing.

Here's the sub that I'm having trouble with (see the bit commented out with 4 sh's - I've left my other comments in to show how I'm thinking):

sub get_mail {
   unless (-s $mailspool) {        # Nothing in the mailbox? Don't bot
+her then
   $debug and print LOG "No mail in mailspool\n";
   return;
   }
   open(MAILBOX, "<$mailspool") or &loganddie("$mailspool exists but I
+ can't open it : $!");
   flock(MAILBOX, LOCK_EX|LOCK_NB) or do {$failed_locks++; return 0};
   # Not getting the lock is not all that fatal - we can try later
   # If we get here, then we can finally do something with the mailspo
+ol.
   # First though, we have to open the file we're moving it to.
   opendir (PROCESSDIR, $processdir) or &loganddie("Someone broke $pro
+cessdir : $!");
   my @allfiles = grep !/^\.\.?\z/, readdir PROCESSDIR;
   closedir PROCESSDIR;
   my $output_file = &POSIX::tmpnam();
   $output_file =~ s/\/tmp\/(.*)/$1/;      # remove /tmp/ from string
   open(PENDING, ">>$processdir/$output_file") or &loganddie("Can't wr
+ite to $processdir/$output_file : $!");
   $debug and print "opened file\n";
   flock(PENDING, LOCK_EX|LOCK_NB) or return 0;
   $debug and print "got lock\n";
   seek(PENDING,0,2) or return 0;  # in case some other process append
+ed
   $debug and print "did seek\n";
   print PENDING while (<MAILBOX>);
   $debug and print "read mailbox\n";
   close PENDING or &loganddie("man there is some crazy sh|t going on\
+n\tcouldn't close $processdir/$output_file : $!");
   $debug and print "closed pending\n";
   #### OK, somehow we now have to truncate the file without unlinking
+ it (don't have write on /var/spool/mail) or releasing the lock (what
+ if more mail comes in between us releasing the lock and truncating t
+he file?)
   close MAILBOX;
   $debug and print "closed MAILBOX\n";
   return;
}
[download]

Can anyone help? Cheer

setantae@eidosnet.co.uk|setantae|www.setantae.uklinux.net