[Mailman-Users] Can someone tell me how do their "locks" behave?

[Elena Fraboschi]

I have been tweaking with "things," and have gotten the following
behavior.

If I completely stop mailman, and then start it, I get *one*
message delivered.  A lock forms, like this:

-rw-rw-r--   2 mailman  mailman       53 Mar 12  2003 master-qrunner
-rw-rw-r--   2 mailman  mailman       53 Mar 12  2003 
master-qrunner.mafalda.11448

Now that process number corresponds to:

8 S  mailman 11448     1  0  40 20        ?    827        ? 14:29:42 ?        
0:00 /usr/local/bin/python ./mailmanctl 

that is, it corresponds to the start of *this* session of mailman.

Is this normal behavior?  What can possibly trigger the fact that
*one* message will get delivered upon "mailmanctl start", and then
nothing?  

Please forgive my insistence.  Best, elena