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