Re: Smail

[tlang@XlYiZmAeBs.CdDe (Torsten Lang)]

Hi!
> 
> > Run 'runq' to deliver the mail, or set delivery-mode to 'background' to do
> > it automatically. I prefer to use 'queued' and run 'runq' when needed, as
> > I often send mail without being on-line. 
> 
> You can still set delevery-mode to background, since smail will queue mail
> anyway when it fails to find the smtp server. Actually, on my setup, the
> delivery-mode only affects incoming mail for some strange reason. But I'm
> happy the way it is. I type all my mails offline, and I can live with the
> "deferred...: ip for post.demon.nl not found" errors in my smail.log. :)
> 
The background or foreground mode makes no difference concerning queueing!
In both cases mail is delivered immedialtely but the major difference is that
in background mode the mail is delivered by forking off a new smail instance
while otherwise the actual instance delivers one mail after another. I advice
you NOT to use background mode due to the memory management of TOS/MiNT: The
newly started instance gets the biggest memory block until it mshrink()s it.

When at that time the other smail instance tries to start another instance again
it 1. may run into trouble since there may be not enough memory left and 2.
memory will be fragmented more than necessary.

This problem becomes important when you try to receive a lot of mails at once.
I lost ~100 mails due to this problem when making my first experiments...

Be also very careful to have enough disk space otherwise you also may lose mail.

Another important point: Don't go offline or online while pop3 (so at least
smail) transfers mail - it will stop and won't recover!

And a last point: smail normally (in background or foreground mode) SHOULD
append the mails to the right mailbox (if there is one for that user!). Be
careful to set the right access rights for your mailbox.

Regards,
    Torsten