Maybe there is an opening for "mtafs" :) which would have the semantics which the MTA authors want and reasonable features which are useful to others [journalling,speed,io-clustering,etc] The question is what precise semantics of ffs does ext3 and ffs/softupdate not provide which makes running a MTA on any recent OS similar to playing russian roulette with mail BTW, It seems that ext3-users@redhat.com is a subscription only list, maybe sct might be able to convice the RH IS staff to use TMDA <http://tmda.sf.net/> for non-subscribers > ext3 is unsafe for maildir, and with softupdates, so is ffs. > One step forwards, two steps back. > > Fortunately, some people still have a choice. > > Wietse > > adi: > > On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 10:34:02PM +0000, Stephen C. Tweedie wrote: > > > On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 05:34:52PM +0800, Yusuf Goolamabbas wrote: > > > > Postfix <http://www.postfix.org> does a chattr +S on its spool directory > > > > when it is installed on Linux. > > > > > > > > Is this still required on ext3 ? > > > > > > I'm not sure --- it depends on what Postfix's assumptions are. If it > > > expects all directory operations to be synchronous then the flag is > > > still needed. If it is satisfied with fsync flushing dir information, > > > then no it is not needed. > > > > I don't say that I know postfix better. Beside for calling fsync() > > to ensure that message safely stored on the disk, postfix also > > use rename(2) to move message accross queue dirs. It's okay because > > postfix's queue-id use inode as it's name. > > > > If I understand correctly, link(2) and unlink(2) implementation > > on ext3fs will be done asynchronously. This is use by postfix > > (unlink()) to remove messages that already delivered (by calling > > remove()). > > > > So, in case of power outage for example, no message will get lost, > > but possibly be delivered twice. Note that postfix also mark all > > of recipients which are already delivered as done (but without calling > > fsync()). > > > > Then *I think* it's save to get rid chattr +S on ext3fs. > > > > On other issue, postfix also support local delivery using maildir > > format (http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) which is use link(2) > > and unlink(2). If there is power outage, it is possible that > > linking file from tmp to new get failed. This is the same with > > losing message as there is no MUA or other mail retreival agent > > use that files which still stay on tmp directory. > > > > Regards, > > > > P.Y. Adi Prasaja > > > > - > > To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@postfix.org with content > > (not subject): unsubscribe postfix-users > > > > > > - > To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@postfix.org with content > (not subject): unsubscribe postfix-users > -- Yusuf Goolamabbas yusufg@outblaze.com
