Ken Hornstein <k...@pobox.com> writes: >>The basic philosophy and reason-for-existence of mh and of nmh is that that's >>not the way to go. I should be allowed -- nay encouraged -- to use file system >>tools to manipulate mh constructs. > >Okay, let me put in my $0.02: > >- I'm kinda with David Levine in that manipulating the MH files directly >is a sort of "Here be Dragons" kind of thing. >- But I also believe that if you want to hang yourself then you should >be allowed to buy the rope. > >So, given that ... I'm fine with some kind of locking program. I >see this as a distinct issue from the "cron jobs modify the MH >context" problem; Ralph has already shown a reasonable soution for >that. My thinking is that you would use this program only for >fiddling with MH files outside of MH programs. It would NOT be for >running one or more MH commands inside of a lock. E.g., something >like: > >mhlock pick -seq ... > >would deadlock. > >So, here's a usage I'm thinking of: > >mhlock [-seq] [-context] [-folder foldername] [-all] [--] command > >The -seq, -context, -folder switches would control what it would lock. >-all would lock all things. mhlock would then run the command specified >on the command line under the lock, then exit.
To make sure I understand this, I will discuss only the the -all case, which is all I asked for. (There would appear to be complex interactions between the other cases; it would hurt my brain to understand them.) Is this how mhlock -all -- command would work? command is not executed until no other 'mhlock -all' is running, and until no relevant nmh program is running. While command is running no other mhlock -all runs nor does any relevant nmh program run. When several 'mhlock -all's and/or relevant nmh programs are contending, there is no guarantee about which will run first. The exit status of mhlock would be that of command. Maybe? there should be --noblock and --block arguments with --block the default?? If --noblock then command runs immediately or mhlock exits with a special value for its exit status. Maybe? [-seq] [-context] [-folder foldername] is overkill?? Norman Shapiro _______________________________________________ Nmh-workers mailing list Nmh-workers@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nmh-workers