From: utzoo!decvax!cca!rlb@Purdue@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: /dev getting screwed up
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2775
Posted: Wed Aug 18 21:12:23 1982
Received: Fri Aug 20 02:32:43 1982

From: Bob Brown 
Date: 7 Aug 1982 16:00:29-EST
We (Purdue-CS) tolerated /dev gettng trashed every month or so for about
three months.  The problem was that we'd find a block in the directory
file contained the text of a mail message.  When we turned off /etc/comsat,
the problem went away.

Deciding we didn't like not having biff, we moved /dev/mail to /tmp/mail.
Lo & Behold, a few weeks later, /tmp got trashed in an identical fashion -
but at least we didn't have to do an epoch restore to run the system.

Send a note to UCB and they'll respond "comsat will go away in 4.2" or
something equally useful.  Move /dev/mail to /tmp/mail in order to
survive the interim.  The problem is probably deep in the multiplexor
and isn't worth tracking down.

Bob Brown (rlb)
Purdue-CS (317)494-6530