Re: MAIL_USE_FLOCK and Debian.

[Rob Browning]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

> This seems to mean that we have to decide at build time.  If it has to
> be decided at build time, the best thing to do is let configure choose
> which library to use.

Given the discussion so far, it seems like we could:

  - provide a run-time choice between the flock/lockf and maillock
    approaches on systems that support both, along with a
    configure-time choice between the liblockfile and libmail
    implementations of maillock when relevant.

  - provide a run-time choice between flock/lockf, maillock via
    libmail, and the liblockfile algorithm.  With this approach, we
    wouldn't use liblockfile itself (because its maillock would
    conflict with libmail's), just the code.  Though direct use of the
    code definitely has potential maintenance issues, at least as far
    as Debian policy is concerned, I believe that just implementing
    the algorithm is acceptable.  Of course, if we did use the code
    directly, we'd need copyright assignments.

  - build-time choice only -- similar to what we have now, but perhaps
    with an added --with-mail-locking=FOO which would require a
    specific approach.

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org, @linuxdevel.com, and @debian.org
Previously @cs.utexas.edu
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