Re: mailagent and MH

["Susan G. Kleinmann" <sgk@sgk.tiac.net>]

A couple of days ago, I wrote:
> 
> I fetch mail from my ISP using a line like:
> popclient -3 -P ~/.my_password_file my_ISPs_mailhost
> 
> This mail is processed by my ~/.rules file, and messages which aren't 
> automatically refiled as a result of matching one of the rules are then
> stored in the file ~/mbox.sgk, which has the same format as 
> /var/spool/mail/sgk.
> 
> Then I try to fetch mail messages from mbox.sgk into my MH inbox,
> by executing:   
>    inc -file ~/mbox.sgk
> 
> What's odd is that I often have to execute inc more than 1 time -- sometimes
> 2 times, to get all the files from mbox.sgk into +inbox.  


I applied Michael Harnois suggestion to have all messages automatically
processed by .rules, so messages which don't match any other rule go
straight to +inbox without my having to execute 'inc'.  That removes
a complication from the above story, but does not eliminate the problem.

Witness the following:

$ popclient -3 -P ~/.tiac pop1.tiac.net
QUALCOMM Pop server derived from UCB (version |214r3+TIAC|) at mailserver1 starting.
1 messages in folder
reading message 1...
$ scan last
4955  08/20 Michael Meskes     Re: Shadow vss PAM<<Patrick W
$ scan last
4956  08/21 To:jbs@phast.umas  monitor info<<Hi Janice -- Yo

Notice that:
-- the popclient finished before I executed the 'scan' command,
-- the first of the two "scan last" commands finished before I executed
   the second.
-- the second "scan last" yielded a different result the second time
   I invoked it.  

This must certainly be a bug.  I don't know if it is in popclient, 
mailagent, or possibly MH.

I'm hesitant to submit a bug report til I know which one it is.
Comments welcome (but of course, I can't guarantee I'll see them!).

Susan Kleinmann