Re: Synchronization Problem

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Ken and Norm,

> > fetchmail runs off a deamon and deposits emails which are in fine
> > nmh format but do not have a numeric names. So I run this script:
> > [...]
> > But after the scan is complete and before I do the rmm, the script
> > might have put a new message in +inbox, which rmm would remove.
>
> There aren't _wonderful_ solutions, because this is a higher-level
> problem; other programs can change the state of your inbox between
> commands.

refile(1) could do with an option to not alter the current folder or
current message.

Norm is setting MHCONTEXT for the refile(1) to a temporary copy so that
protects his main context file's ‘current-folder’ entry from
being modified, but a folder's .mh_sequences file's ‘cur’ entry is still
changed.  I suppose appending ‘mh-sequences: .mh-sequences.$$’ to the
new MHCONTEXT file would help because ‘cur’ would then be changed in
there?

Even if cur is protected, this script running in the background and
altering the contents of +inbox will have unwanted results with commands
like ‘rmm last:10’ so your main point is correct.

I have fetchmail run in the background, but the local mail-delivery
agent it hands them over to, Postfix, appends to the /var/$LOGNAME/mail
mbox-format file whence inc(1) picks them up when it's run manually
by me.  Often because bash(1) is checking for new mail as described
under ‘MAIL’, ‘MAILCHECK’, and ‘MAILPATH’.

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.