Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!hall!hrp
From: hrp@hall.cray.com (Hal Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: GNUemacs on SUNS: full partitions and NFS timeouts
Summary: GNU Emacs not reporting full partitions:  it's a SunOS bug.
Message-ID: <3920@hall.cray.com>
Date: 9 Feb 88 15:01:15 GMT
References: <13252@cornell.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cray Research, Inc., Mendota Heights, MN
Lines: 19
Posted: Tue Feb  9 09:01:15 1988

In article <13252@cornell.UUCP>, murthy@arvak (Chet Murthy) writes:
> 
> We run GNUemacs version 18.41 here, and we have been experiencing problems with
> writing files to full partitions, or to NFS servers which can timeout.

We ran into this, too.  I think it's either a bug in SunOS or a problem
in the mapping from NFS to UNIX(R) system calls.  What should happen is
this: the write(2) call to save the buffer returns -1 with ENOSPC.  Instead,
the write call says that everything is OK, and the fsync(2) call gives
the ENOSPC error.  This is especially interesting since, according to the
man page, ENOSPC isn't one of the choices for fsync.  Anyway, the GNU
Emacs code checks the return value of the write, but not of the fsync,
resulting in the observed symptom.

Long term fix:  fix SunOS.  In the meantime, though, it wouldn't hurt to
check the return value from fsync.
-- 
Hal Peterson / Cray Research / 1345 Northland Dr. / Mendota Hts, MN  55120
hrp%hall.CRAY.COM@umn-rei-uc.ARPA	ihnp4!cray!hrp	    (612) 681-5884