[26013] in Athena Bugs
.sw_messages problem causes acrobat to freeze
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Erica H Peterson)
Mon Aug 30 12:21:17 2004
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:17:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Erica H Peterson <astronut@mit.edu>
To: bugs@mit.edu
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.58L.0408301203560.17694@kuzco.mit.edu>
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Hello,
OLC got a report today that a user was trying to open a pdf file with
acroread, and kept getting the message:
Removed lockfile /afs/athena.mit.edu/user/u/s/username/.sw_messages.lck
[1] + Suspended (tty output) acroread filename.pdf
...and then the file could not be opened. Deleting either .sw_messages,
.sw_messages.lck, or both, did not help - both files were created again
(but with a file size of zero):
-rw------- 1 username mit 0 Aug 30 11:30 .sw_messages
-rwx------ 1 username mit 0 Aug 30 11:30 .sw_messages.lck
and the same error was displayed. I was able to replicate the problem on
my account, although it did not occur at the same time - sometimes it
occured when I tried to open a file, and other times it happened when I
tried to close acroread. In all cases, I got the "removed lockfile"
message in the terminal, and acroread froze and would not respond to
input. I looked at the send_message manpage and then at the README files
in /mit/acro/Athena/messages, and saw that a new message was added for a
recent acroread upgrade:
athena% more README.cookies
Cookie File Date(s) Deleted
====== ==== ======= =======
2.1-3.0_compat_probs compat2.1-3.0 March 26, 1997 February 14, 2000
4.0upgrade upgrade4.0def August 30, 1999 February 14, 2000
linuxlprprob linuxlpr February 14, 2000 February 25, 2000
5.0upgrade upgrade5.0def May 30, 2002 August 23, 2004
5.0.9upgrade upgrade5.0.9def August 23, 2004
My .sw_messages file does not have a 5.0.9upgrade entry. The user's new
.sw_messages file was created with zero size, indicating that theirs does
not either. I tried to replicate the problem with the test account "paco"
and did not experience any difficulties - paco's .sw_messages file was
created with the 5.0.9upgrade entry.
I'm not sure why the test account isn't experiencing this problem, but
mine and the original user's are - our quotas are fine, and the files are
writeable, but somehow send_message isn't adding that entry to our
.sw_message file, causing acroread to freeze.
Thanks,
Erica
-----------------
Erica H. Peterson
astronut@mit.edu
