[comp.mail.mh] mh on SGI's: problems getting it to work just right

dwallach@nas.nasa.gov (Dan Wallach) (06/14/91)

Well, I finally got MH to compile, after hacking a couple files, and
I ended up doing the make by hand in parts, but I have it.  (I'll send
the config's and diff's to anybody who wants them, or post if I get
enough demand).

Problems I'm encountering:

When I try to show an article, I get nothing.  This appears to be mhl's
fault.  My showproc is mhl and my moreproc is less.  Relevant lines from
my .mh_profile are:

showproc:               mhl
moreproc:               less
mhl:        -nobell -noclear
show:       -noheader -form mhl.format -showproc mhl
raw:        -noshowproc -noheader

The following don't work:

% show
% raw | mhl
% raw | mhl -moreproc cat

The following work:

% show | less
% raw
% raw | mhl | less

It appears that mhl notices whether or not stdout happens to be the console
and then proceeds to break.  This only happens when mhl has a moreproc.

Problem #2:

(this is likely an SGI only problem...)
inc doesn't work on /usr/mail/dwallach, but it works just fine on any other
file out there.  inc will hang for a minute and then print:

inc: unable to lock and fopen /usr/mail/dwallach

Relevant file info:
drwxrwxr-x   3 root     mail       20480 Jun 13 19:08 /usr/mail/
-rw-rw----   1 dwallach mail       14016 Jun 13 18:52 /usr/mail/dwallach

FYI: I'm building MH 6.7.1 on a SGI 4D/380 running 3.3.2.  I had to mess
with the makefiles not doing quite the right thing in some places, and
I had to change h/local.h and h/mh.h  (local.h to include the correct
<sys/dir.h> and mh.h to know that SGI's have vfork() )

I needed to change sbr/makedir.c to again include some of the right files.

My MH configuration is essentially SYS5 (i.e.: no BSD42 or BSD43 in there).


Thanks for what help you can give,

Dan Wallach
dwallach@nas.nasa.gov

tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold) (06/20/91)

dwallach@nas.nasa.gov (Dan Wallach) writes:

$ [...]
$ (this is likely an SGI only problem...)
$ inc doesn't work on /usr/mail/dwallach, but it works just fine on any other
$ file out there.  inc will hang for a minute and then print:

$ inc: unable to lock and fopen /usr/mail/dwallach

$ Relevant file info:
$ drwxrwxr-x   3 root     mail       20480 Jun 13 19:08 /usr/mail/
$ -rw-rw----   1 dwallach mail       14016 Jun 13 18:52 /usr/mail/dwallach
$ [...]

Do this:

	chgrp inc
	chmod g+s inc

That will do it.  I had to do this on a 3b2 running System V too.
--
        Tom Reingold
        tr@samadams.princeton.edu  OR  ...!princeton!samadams!tr
        "Warning: Do not drive with Auto-Shade in place.  Remove
        from windshield before starting ignition."

cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann) (06/25/91)

tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold) writes:
| Do this:
| 	chgrp inc
| 	chmod g+s inc
| That will do it.  I had to do this on a 3b2 running System V too.

 Note that this is only safe to do under MH 6.7+; on MH 6.6 and previous
(hmm, it may be MH 6.5 and previous; my 3b1 is dead right now or I'd
check) this will let you inc any user's mailbox with 'inc -file
/usr/mail/<user>'.

--
    ported program:	  a program which takes constant or increasing
			  effort to port to each new machine.
    portable program: a program which takes less effort to port to
		      each new machine.
cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu	           ...!{utgpu,utzoo,watmath}!utgpu!cks