Re: Request for more options in resurce file

[Earl Hood <earl@earlhood.com>]

On December 11, 2002 at 15:17, "Birger Mortensen" wrote:

> >   /path/to/dbfiles/
> >     .list1.db
> >     .list2.db
> >     .list2.db
> >     ...
> >
> > and does (use bash shell syntax),
> >
> >   for i in .*.db; do; mhonarc -add -dbfile $i done
> >
> > This case would imply that LOCKFILE shold be relative to OUTDIR
> > to avoid it bottlenecking processing of multiple archives in parallel.
> > For example:
> >
> >   for i in .*.db; do; mhonarc -add -dbfile $i & done
> 
> Well LOCKFILE name = [DBFILE name ].lockfile - or just  lockfile in OUTDIR
> ( HTML files ) , it would break any setup to use the same OUTDIR for 2 or
> more lists that runs in parallel.

Using the same OUTDIR for two separate archives is bad.  I
do not think I want to directly support such usage, but such usage
is not technically prohibited now.

However, the big problem with using the same OUTDIR is message number
assignment, which directly maps to the filenames of converted message
pages.  The way message numbers are determined for messages, if two
archives with same OUTDIR are being updated at the same time, it is
highly probably that each archive will generate message filenames
that are the same, generating a conflict.  The problem also exists
for attachment filenames, but less likely of conflict.  But race
conditions exist.

Now, it is technically possible to have mhonarc code perform smarting
message number assignment by doing file system checks for each new
message, but such code would not be simple and incur significant
overhead.  Right now, mhonarc does an initial scan to find the last
message file to initialize the message number assignment.  After that,
it just increments the number for each new message added.

Now, if the same LOCKFILE name is used (which is the existing behavior),
such conflicts will be avoided since only one mhonarc process will
be modifying OUTDIR at the same time.  All bets are off if different
LOCKFILE names are used.

BTW, changing the default name of the LOCKFILE would break existing
usage.

> Great - i'am looking forward to that release

A nightly snapshot release is made of the latest CVS code and is made
available at <http://www.mhonarc.org/release/MHonArc/tar/> for those
interested in checking and testing out the latest changes to MHonArc.

--ewh

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