Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!dptcdc!sickkids!mark
From: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: inews pl 17 / mhopen etc. - Problem
Message-ID: <306@sickkids.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jul 89 14:31:43 GMT
References: <2113@incas.UUCP>
Reply-To: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Lines: 42

Here's a belated followup to a posting from mid-May.  I didn't notice any
other responses to it.  I find this mildly surprising, since we too have
seen the behaviour described (at least with newgroup control messages), so
I'd expect the problem is fairly widespread.  Anyway, ...

In article <2113@incas.UUCP> zessel@incas.UUCP (Holger Zessel) writes:

> After installing patches 15 to 17 my inews has some problems
> with sending mail to the newsmaster. It seems to block
> while feeding mail into mail (or submit). This happens
> e.g. with rnews -U while unpacking batches.

> Does anybody have similar prioblems and got a solution ?

Yes, and yes.  The problem is due to the fact that:

(1)  Patches 15-17 caused the closing of the pipe to the mail process [by
calling mclose()] to be deferred until near the end of insert().  Prior to
the patch, this was done in c_newgroup() (and elsewhere), before unlock()
was called.

(2)  The call to unlock() in c_newgroup() therefore doesn't remove the lock,
since the mail subprocess is still hanging around with the file descriptor
(used for locking) still open.

(3)  The next call to lock() [from localize(), from insert()] therefore hangs.

The fix is easy.  In control.c/mhopen(), insert ...

                unlock();

... anywhere between ...

        if((pid = vfork()) == 0) {

... and the first execl().

---------------

Mark Bartelt                          UUCP: {utzoo,decvax}!sickkids!mark
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto   BITNET: mark@sickkids.utoronto
416/598-6442                          INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu