[comp.unix.aux] [Another?] Big, nasty bug in A/UX rmail and/or uuxqt

henry@chinet.chi.il.us (Henry C. Schmitt) (12/12/90)

In article <1990Dec10.115338.3828@panix.uucp> alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes:
>
>It seems I was right in my guess that they were running out of file
>descriptors. Changing the appropriate kernel parameters fixed things.
>

I'm getting a different problem with uucp.  Simply put, rmail to a
valid user fails.  The relevant section of the LGOFILE is:

chinet!uucp (12/11-9:55:53) (C,313,0) OK (DIRECT tty1 0)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:00) (C,313,0) SUCCEEDED (call to chinet )
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:10) (C,313,0) OK (startup)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:12) (C,313,0) REQUESTED (S D.chineb13c106 D.chineb13c106
 uucp)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:18) (C,313,1) REQUESTED (S D.yorub4c04106 X.yorubaN4c04
uucp)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:22) (C,313,2) OK (conversation complete  tty1 89)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:23) (Q,319,0) uucp XQT (rmail henry )
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:24) (Q,319,0) ret (1000) from chinet!uucp (MAIL FAIL)
chinet!uucp (12/11-9:57:27) (X,328,0) XQT QUE'D (rmail uucp )

and the returned message is:

From uucp  Tue Dec 11 09:57:25 1990 remote from yoruba
Received: by yoruba (5.61/SMI-3.2)
        id AA00325; Tue, 11 Dec 90 09:57:25 CST
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 09:57:25 CST
From: yoruba!uucp (UUCP admin)
Message-Id: <9012111557.AA00325@yoruba>
To: chinet!uucp

Mail failed (PATH=/bin:/usr/bin LOGNAME=uucp TZ=`/bin/cat rmail
henry ).  Letter
 returned to sender.


The main problem with this is that it is not consistant.  Most times
mail works fine, but once in a while it barfs!

Can anyone help??
-- 
  H3nry C. Schmitt     | CompuServe: 72275,1456  (Rarely)
                       | GEnie: H.Schmitt  (Occasionally)
 Royal Inn of Yoruba   | UUCP: Henry@chinet.chi.il.us  (Best Bet)

alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (12/12/90)

henry@chinet.chi.il.us (Henry C. Schmitt) writes:
>alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes:
>>It seems I was right in my guess that they were running out of file
>>descriptors. Changing the appropriate kernel parameters fixed things.

No, I wasn't. See my previous message about this, it's a real bug.

>I'm getting a different problem with uucp.  Simply put, rmail to a
>valid user fails.  The relevant section of the LGOFILE is:
>[ not important... ]
>
>and the returned message is:
>
>[...]
>From: yoruba!uucp (UUCP admin)     [ this is Henry's A/UX host ]
>Message-Id: <9012111557.AA00325@yoruba>
>To: chinet!uucp
>
>Mail failed (PATH=/bin:/usr/bin LOGNAME=uucp TZ=`/bin/cat rmail
>henry ).  Letter
> returned to sender.

Aha.
This is a known bug. Known (and hated) by me for 18 months, acknowledged
by Apple two weeks ago. (Thanks Vicki...)

Fortunately it's very simple to deal with. Put the following two lines in
your uudemon.hr file (or whatever shell script you use to call out) before
you invoke uucico:
TZ=`cat /etc/TIMEZONE`
export TZ

>The main problem with this is that it is not consistant.  Most times
>mail works fine, but once in a while it barfs!

Chances are it's working when you are being called (ie, uucico starts up with
uushell, which sets TZ correctly). When you call out, you're using uudemon.hr,
which is broken, and so mail fails.

BTW, when you invoke uucico (or uudemon.hr) by hand in an environment that
has TZ set, naturally it will work. This is tricky, as this may be the case
when you're debugging, so you'll never see the problem during tests...

(God, it's scary to think that I'm becoming something of an A/UX uucp guru.
I can't think of a more useless thing... :-) )

---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis

henry@chinet.chi.il.us (Henry C. Schmitt) (12/14/90)

In article <1990Dec12.111135.17246@panix.uucp> alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes:
>
>Aha.
>This is a known bug. Known (and hated) by me for 18 months, acknowledged
>by Apple two weeks ago. (Thanks Vicki...)
>
>Fortunately it's very simple to deal with. Put the following two lines in
>your uudemon.hr file (or whatever shell script you use to call out) before
>you invoke uucico:
>TZ=`cat /etc/TIMEZONE`
>export TZ
>
Here's a similar solution sent to me by Vicki:
>Look at /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr
>Be sure it says:
>	cd /usr/lib/uucp
>	env "TZ=`/bin/cat /etc/TIMEZONE`" uucico -r1
>	uulog
>
>also look at /usr/lib/uucp/uushell; it should contain:
>	env "TZ=`/bin/cat /etc/TIMEZONE`" /usr/lib/uucp/uucico
>
>That is, be sure these things set the Time Zone variable (TZ) before
>kicking off uucico.  uucico (in the form of the tzset() function) is
>brain damaged. 
>
>   Vicki Brown   A/UX Development Group	Apple Computer, Inc.
>   Internet: vlb@apple.com			MS 50UX, 10300 Bubb Rd.	
>   UUCP: {sun,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!vlb		Cupertino, CA  95014 USA
>              Ooit'n Normaal Mens Ontmoet?  En..., Beviel't?
>        (Have you ever met a normal person?  So..., did you like it?)

I've set this up, but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Let's give a big round of applause to the folks at Apple who take
the time to do tech. support over Usenet.  Thanx!!

-- 
  H3nry C. Schmitt     | CompuServe: 72275,1456  (Rarely)
                       | GEnie: H.Schmitt  (Occasionally)
 Royal Inn of Yoruba   | UUCP: Henry@chinet.chi.il.us  (Best Bet)