rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo) (08/30/88)
I'm posting this because I'm not quite sure that my mail to the Elm testers mailing list has been getting out. Three recent bug fixes I mailed out bounced on the first mailing! In the past say three weeks I have gotten very little mail sent to the mailing list, except, my own, which has included something like a dozen bug fixes. I hope the silence is a function of the other testers (1) being to busy to provide fixes, or (2) being very happy with the patches I've sent out. In any case, what follows it a letter I just sent out to the testers mailing list. If you are on the mailing list and have been getting stuff all along but have not received this letter through the mailing list, nor my ~dozen recent patches, then something is very wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whew! With the last bug fix of mine, just sent moments ago, according to my records, the only outstanding bug that has been reported is a highly intermittent one. It involves incorrect offsets into the letters in a mail folder and seems to occur when new mail comes in to a folder already being read by elm. This causes the viewing of one letter to include some lines from adjacent letters. Are there any other bugs outstanding? -- Rob Bernardo, Staff analyst, Pacific Bell UNIX Small Business Systems Office: (415) 823-2417 Room 4E750A, San Ramon Valley Administrative Center Residence: (415) 827-4301 R Bar JB, Concord, California -- Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell UNIX Small Bus. Systems Development & Maintenance Email: ...![backbone]!pacbell!rob OR rob@PacBell.COM Office: (415) 823-2417 Room 4E750A, San Ramon Valley Administrative Center Residence: (415) 827-4301 R Bar JB, Concord, California
taylor@hplabs.HP.COM (Dave Taylor) (08/31/88)
Rob Bernardo copies a message he (presumably) sent to the Elm testers mailing list with the bug report: > .. the only outstanding bug that has been reported is a highly > intermittent one. It involves incorrect offsets into the letters > in a mail folder and seems to occur when new mail comes in to a > folder already being read by Elm. This causes the viewing of one > letter to include some lines from adjacent letters. Actually I recently had some interesting insight into this problem, though I haven't been able to look at the code to confirm my suspicion. Basically, I had Elm up in a window and was dinking about in /tmp in another when a message arrived. For another reason entirely I did a "ls -l" of /tmp and noticed, much to my suprise, that the /tmp/mbox.taylor file was *the size of the new message* rather than total mailbox size. I then went into /usr/mail (I'm on a Sys V machine) and looked at the size of the mailbox there -- sure enough it was the correct, larger size. Since an open file can be removed without affecting programs that have it open for reading, I surmise that the problem we see is somehow caused by the program having the mailbox file open when it thinks it is closed, then attempting to "append" the new message to the temporary mailbox, then instead, for some mysterious reason, *replacing* it instead. Most peculiar indeed. This might, I hope, help someone track the problem down, however. -- Dave Taylor purported author, The Elm Mail System ;-)
davis@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Jim Davis) (09/14/88)
Rob Bernardo rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM writes:
rb> With the last bug fix of mine, just sent moments ago, according to
rb> my records, the only outstanding bug that has been reported is
rb> a highly intermittent one. It involves incorrect offsets into
rb> the letters in a mail folder and seems to occur when new mail comes
rb> in to a folder already being read by elm. This causes the viewing
rb> of one letter to include some lines from adjacent letters.
As I have observed that particular bug many times in several
different versions of Elm over the past year I thought I would
tell you a few things that make it far from sporadic. It happens
every time now for me.
This bug is dependent upon the "S)orting criteria" set. If
"Reverse Mailbox Order" is selected then the problem will not
occur. I have found that "Mailbox Order" on a mailbox of 20+
messages guarentees for me that the problem will occur.
------
jwd> From: Jim Davis <davis@hplabsb>
jwd> Subject: Re: Elm2.0 bug jwd 06: Bad idea of message boundaries
jwd> To: taylor@hplms2 (Dave Taylor)
jwd> Date: Sun, 6 Dec 87 0:15:35 Pst
jwd> X-Mailer: Elm [version 2.0 alpha]
jwd> Dave,
jwd> I have verified that this error is absolutely consistant
jwd> on most any mailbox so long as Elm has the display order
jwd> set to "Mailbox-Order". Mail received after Elm has started up
jwd> will have its "From " line displayed also as the last line
jwd> in the previous message. Changing the sort order does not
jwd> fix the problem in already received messages, but the ones received
jwd> while the new ordering is in effect (such as "Reverse Mailbox-Order")
jwd> will not display the problem. Resetting the display ordering will
jwd> again cause the problem to be exhibited on new messages.
jwd> Very interesting . . . you should be able to see this on your own
jwd> mailbox.
jwd> -- Jim
------
jwd> From: Jim Davis <davis@hplabsb>
jwd> Subject: Re: Elm2.0 bug jwd 06: Bad idea of message boundaries
jwd> To: taylor@hplms2 (Dave Taylor)
jwd> Date: Sat, 5 Dec 87 21:19:38 Pst
jwd> Dave,
jwd> The bug seems to be quite consistant. If I bring up elm
jwd> on my system mailbox with <x> messages in the box, if a new
jwd> message arrives then viewing message <x> will display the
jwd> "from " line from message <x+1> as the last line of message <x>.
jwd> If this is not consistant, then I should be able to provide you
jwd> with an example.
------
--
-- Jim Davis
Email: {any_of_the_biggies}!hplabs!davis
Arpa/Domain: davis@hplabs.hp.com
Ma Bell: (415)857-4036rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo) (09/14/88)
Rob Bernardo writes: +With the last bug fix of mine, just sent moments ago, according to +my records, the only outstanding bug that has been reported is +a highly intermittent one. It involves incorrect offsets into +the letters in a mail folder and seems to occur when new mail comes +in to a folder already being read by elm. This causes the viewing +of one letter to include some lines from adjacent letters. Jim Davis writes: + As I have observed that particular bug many times in several +different versions of Elm over the past year I thought I would +tell you a few things that make it far from sporadic. It happens +every time now for me. Been fixed. Fix will be in the next public release of Elm, which I believe is 2.2, very shortly forthcoming. -- Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell UNIX Small Bus. Systems Development & Maintenance Email: ...![backbone]!pacbell!rob OR rob@PacBell.COM Office: (415) 823-2417 Room 4E750A, San Ramon Valley Administrative Center Residence: (415) 827-4301 R Bar JB, Concord, California