Re: TODO additions

[Dave Love <d.love@dl.ac.uk>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> Could you (or someone) find the necessary changes (in Debian perhaps)
> so we can install them?

I don't think there are simple changes -- if I remember correctly, the
structure was quite different, which was why I didn't just do it.
You'd need to look in XEmacs CVS anyhow to (try to) verify the
provenance of the code.  The bulk of it was apparently done by
Sperber, but I didn't check it thoroughly.  The server is at
:pserver:cvs@sunsite.dk:/pack/xemacscvs.

Apart from the locking stuff, Debian has other changes to movemail for
specifying the spool directory (but only at configure time).

>     For 21.3, you might want other changes for gnu-linux mipsle, hp and
>     s390 targets, but they're inconsistent with the treatment in the
>     current head sources.  (I just made a trivial change which should get
>     mipsle OK.)
> 
> Could you say more concretely which part of the code we're talking
> about?

Just the {m,s}/*.h files, and trivial changes to configure.in.

> Which precisely are the versions that are inconsistent?

The s390 config file is different and differently named and the
changes in the hp800.h file are different.  I've no evidence anything
in the Emacs head versions is wrong.

> (If you would like to solve the problem yourself then you don't need
> to explain it.)

It only applies to the release branch.  I don't know if you want to
support the targets there.  I think SuSE are s390 experts, so perhaps
schwab could advise on that.

>     I can send a pared-down version of the diffs if that's useful.
> 
> Would the pared-down version of the diffs be a working fix?

I don't know whether the movemail locking changes can be made safe for
other systems.  The readme says the following about the movemail
changes.  Note that comments about `upstream authors'.

  ** The location of the mail spool has been centralized.
  
  [ This modification is currently only available in the Debian source,
    but the upstream authors and I are in the process of working out the
    appropriate upstream patch.
  
    Please do *NOT* use mail-spool-directory in any public code until
    and unless this variable makes it into the upstream source. ]
  
  Determination of the location of the mail spool has now been
  centralized.  There is a new lisp-level variable mail-spool-directory
  that should always contain the location of the mail spool (normally a
  directory like /usr/spool/mail).
  
  There is a related configure option --with-mail-spool-directory that
  allows you to override the default mail spool location detected, if
  any, at configure time.  The proper setting for a particular
  architecture may also be set in src/s/*.h with
  SYSTEM_MAIL_SPOOL_DIRECTORY, but note that --with-mail-spool-directory
  always takes precedence.
  
  At the C level, the mail spool directory is available from
  lib-src/mailspool.h which provides a MAIL_SPOOL_DIRECTORY definition.
  
  nnmail, rmail, and movemail have all been modified to respect this new
  arrangement.
  
  ** Mailbox locking improved and brought into line with Debian policy.
  
  [ This modification is currently only available in the Debian source,
    but the upstream authors and I are in the process of working out the
    appropriate upstream patch. ]
  
  Configure now looks for liblockfile before libmail (liblockfile is a
  free software replacement for libmail).  Either library, if found, is
  propagated to the movemail (lib-src) Makefile through the
  MOVEMAIL_LOCK_LIBS variable.
  
  Also MAIL_USE_FLOCK is disabled since it is wrong for a Debian system.