Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!umich!ox.com!lokkur!scs
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: running newalias while the database is in use
Message-ID: <1990Jul26.025525.8299@lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Date: 26 Jul 90 02:55:25 GMT
References: <1547@mitisft.Convergent.COM>
Organization: Inland Sea
Lines: 20

bms@mitisft.Convergent.COM (Bruce Schlobohm) writes:

>Has anyone noticed any problems running newalias while other users
>are using aliases from the database?  A few users have complained about
>addressing problems that they have traced back to the sys admin running
>newalias during the day.  The problems have reportedly stopped since
>changing the rules to have newalias only run after hours.

I believe your diagnosis (system alias file not locked during modification)
is correct.

I also believe that a global system alias file *as part of elm* (note that
clause) is a bad idea.  On BSD-based system I put global aliases into
the sendmail aliases, on SysV I use smail and it's alias files.  Why?
Because some of my users prefer other mailers and we don't force them to
use elm.  Putting those aliases with the transport agent rather than
the user agent makes them accessible in a manner independant of elm,
mush, mailtool, mh, fill-in-the-blank.  Yes, there are advantages to
global elm aliases.  But in my book they're outweighed by the disadvantages
(aside from the bug you found).