[arch-general] Dovecot imap processes pinning CPU

[David Rosenstrauch]

In recent days, dovecot's "imap" processes keep getting stuck.  Each time
I check my server there's a bunch of "imap" processes (sometimes 2 of
them, sometimes 4, sometimes 6) that are using all of the box's CPU.

And worse, there's no way to kill the processes either (neither kill -15
or kill -9 works), which means that I wind up having to reboot the box
every time this happens.  REALLY irritating.

I don't normally even *see* the imap processes in htop, as I think they're
pretty short lived.  And I'm not sure what they're looping trying to do. 
My debugging skills on Linux are a bit weak, and so I don't know how to
look at the process and see what it's doing.

Also, not sure what's changed on my system to cause this, as this is
definitely a recent problem.  Maybe the upgrade to Thunderbird 2.0.0.18
(since I usually use T'Bird to access my email).  I don't seem to run into
this problem when I use Squirrelmail.

Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?  Or, if not, then
suggestions on how I might be able to debug the situation myself?

TIA,

DR