chip@ateng.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) (07/05/88)
[Cross-posted to comp.unix.xenix] According to karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger): >In article <169@ness386.UUCP> mechsfm@ness386.UUCP (Shawn McDonald 512+377-6226) writes: >>I think that the official release of elm 2.0 should support the >>lastest release of Xenix. > >Try telling config you're a S5 VAX... it worked here, and we are using it >daily (1.7b now, it was 1.5 originally). No, no, NO! You do _not_ have a working Elm! It is only a reasonable facsimile thereof. :-) When "real" Unix /bin/mail locks fred's mailbox, it does it by exclusive creation of "/usr/spool/mail/fred.lock". Under Xenix, however, fred's mailbox is locked by creation of "/tmp/fred.mlk". This can be discerned by running "strings /usr/lib/mail/mail.local" -- you'll find the string "/tmp/%.10s.mlk" which is a printf-style format for the lock file. Thus you are in *big trouble* if you are using stock Elm under Xenix and new mail arrives -- or even worse, if Xenix's mail.local and Elm's "fastmail" program both want to send mail to fred at the same time. Ouch! -- Chip Salzenberg <chip@ateng.uu.net> or <uunet!ateng!chip> A T Engineering My employer may or may not agree with me. You make me wanna break the laws of time and space You make me wanna eat pork