followup: stuck lmtpd processes

[Rob Siemborski]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Etienne Goyer wrote:

> > Something that works in Linux, sure.  Something that works in broken Linux?
> > No.  Fix the breakage in Linux, instead.  That's our strenght, and I *will*
> > stick to it as a Debian maintainer.
>
> While I agree with you on a technical level and admire your commitment
> to excellence, this may not be practictal.  The installed base is huge
> and the interested party (Linux distributor) numerous.  Getting
> everybody to update broken packages will be quite an endeavour.

We don't have to get everybody to update, only the people who are running
Cyrus.

> > There is a proper Unix way to do it (using alarm().  this needs to be added
> > to Cyrus IMHO) that *might* not work in certain Linux glibc/kernel
> > combinations.
>
> That's the crux of the problem : if the glibc/kernel combination
> correspond to the major part of the installed base, it might continue to
> hurt for a long time.

If it is a single combination, that can be documented.

> > Now, if other Unixes have stupid lock and alarm() bugs, that deadlock
> > testing code would be even more useful... :-)
>
> In the case of closed-source OS, there may be nothing we can do about it
> except working around the bug.

Or reporting it to the vendor.  Which is exactly what I think we should do
in the case of Linux.

-Rob

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rob Siemborski * Andrew Systems Group * Cyert Hall 207 * 412-268-7456
Research Systems Programmer * /usr/contributed Gatekeeper