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Re: [Nmh-workers] multiple folders to rcvstore

2005-11-08 20:30:14
The problem isn't really one of atomicity, and I can say that because
even doing this in one nmh command is not atomic. They interfere with
each other. The problem is not having a common location to achieve the
linking.

I don't understand this paragraph -- could you be more specific how a
rcvstore to multiple folders is going to interfere with other nmh commands?
Keep in mind that rcvstore does not manipulate the context (ignoring
sequences).

Sequences is the main (only?) visible effect, but if you have a look
at the code for folder_addmsg() you'll see it's an infinite loop that
keeps trying to add a message to the next number in the sequence. If I've
understood it correctly, it's written like this because there is always
the possibility that a message has been dropped in by some other process
between choosing a message number and linking the message there.

The design does not depend on, or even desire, atomicity.

I also do not understand why you need a "common location" to achieve the
linking. Linking will only work if all the mail is on a single filesystem; if
it wasn't clear, I will state explicitly that this (and _any_ other solution
involving refile, etc.) will require that the seperate folders reside on the
same filesystem.

But what if they don't? refile has a sensible fallback because the
message already exists somewhere. What should the behaviour be for
rcvstore, and should it be configurable? Should rcvstore create only
as many copies as there are filesystems, and hardlink within each
filesystem?

Cheers,

        - Joel


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