Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: NFS in 2.1.130?? | From | Ben Gertzfield <> | Date | 02 Dec 1998 08:47:12 -0800 |
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>>>>> "David" == David Luyer <luyer@ucs.uwa.edu.au> writes:
Alan> procmail style dot locking works over NFS.
Chip> So does Deliver, if it's compiled with -DHAS_NFS. Chip> Unfortunately, the Debian distribution of Deliver isn't. So Chip> I recommend that Debian users of Deliver compile it on their Chip> own.
David> Especially as the default 'deliver' does flock() locking, David> the default 'qpopper' does fcntl() locking (flock() but David> with a flock.c which really does fcntl()) and the net David> result is large amounts of mail bounces which sendmail David> doesn't handle well and bounces a whole mass of messages David> when it sees the first error. So yes, Debian users should David> compile their own deliver and/or qpopper and/or other mail David> programs. This is one area Debian is currently lacking - David> there's no "Debian mail locking standard" evident.
This is patently untrue; deliver was mistakenly not conformant with Debian Mail Transport Agent policy, but Debian most certainly does have a specific set of guidelines on how MTAs must behave:
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch5.html#s5.5
5.5 Mail transport agents
Debian packages which process electronic mail, whether mail-user-agents (MUAs) or mail-transport-agents (MTAs), must make sure that they are compatible with the configuration decisions below. Failure to do this may result in lost mail, broken From: lines, and other serious brain damage!
The mail spool is /var/spool/mail and the interface to send a mail message is /usr/sbin/sendmail (as per the FSSTND). The mail spool is part of the base system and not part of the MTA package.
All Debian MUAs and MTAs have to use the maillock and mailunlock functions provided by the liblockfile packages to lock and unlock mail boxes. These functions implement a NFS-safe locking mechanism. (It is ok if MUAs and MTAs don't link against liblockfile but use a compatible mechanism. Please compare the mechanisms very carefully!)
[snip]
So there you go -- we actually provide a library, liblockfile, to get consistant locking behavior that is safe across NFS; if the MTA cannot be linked against liblockfile, a compatible mechanism (i.e. dotfiles) must be used.
David> Debian's 'deliver' also doesn't send comsat ("biff") David> messages. I have a patch if anyone's interested and able David> to get it into 'deliver', since all addresses in the source David> code end up in mail bounces.
Please mail your patch to the Debian bug-tracking system; to submit a patch on the deliver package, simply mail to submit@bugs.debian.org and make the first line of your message, after the headers:
Package: deliver
If you include your patch with the bug report, the Debian maintainer can certainly contact the upstream source. Debian maintainers generally have been in contact already with upstream and know the best address to reach them.
Ben
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