Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!dsinc!syd From: syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein) Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm Subject: Re: Old mail overwriting new mail Keywords: Bug in Elm 2.2 PL0? Message-ID: <1989Aug17.161602.569@DSI.COM> Date: 17 Aug 89 16:16:02 GMT References: <450cf429.1070b@gtephx.UUCP> Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM Distribution: na Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc. Huntingdon Valley, PA Lines: 29 yountm@gtephx.UUCP (Marvin Yount) writes: >I'm currently running Elm 2.2 PL0 in a sys5 mail environment on an Apollo >SR9.7 system. Recently I've had a problem with newly received mail being >overwritten by an older piece of mail. Yes, I know that sounds backwards, >but when I try to read the new mail, I'm instead shown the oldest mail in my >mailbox. First some background.... Elm does not work properly on SR9.7, it does work properly on SR10.1. Elm uses Unix style file system operations, that are not necessarly the same under 9.7. However, there still could be two problems here, neither of which are bugs, but either misunderstanding, or misconfiguration. First: Elm presents the mail in a sorted order, if that sorter order is oldest first, then it will show the mailbox that way, even though it is stored in a different order. (this is the misunderstanding) Second is misconfiguration: Elm uses several methods for locking the mailbox. If the locking method used is not the same as the one used by the MTA, the MTA could deliver mail, and the Elm would overwrite it. I do not know what locking method is used by SR9.7, but 10.1 uses flock locking. You need to compile Elm to use flock locking under 10.1. I suggest you review your configuration. -- ===================================================================== Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator Datacomp Systems, Inc. Voice: (215) 947-9900 syd@DSI.COM or {bpa,vu-vlsi}!dsinc!syd FAX: (215) 938-0235