2.0.31-pre7 mandatory lock showstopper; precompiled binary failure.

Kristofer T. Karas (ktk@ktk.bidmc.harvard.edu)
Wed, 27 Aug 1997 17:50:06 -0400

Under 2.0.31-pre7 (not sure about pre2-pre6), the new mandatory lock
support is breaking precompiled binaries (despite source-code comments
that it is backwards compatible). I first saw and reported this in
2.1.x, but the post to linux-kernel went unnoticed.

Most notably, 'sendmail'+'procmail' is not interlocking with
'movemail', causing entries in /var/spool/mail/ to be truncated
mid-message, with ensuing mail lossage. (Usually, the truncation
occurs just after the letter "F" in the "From user@foo" header.)
Kernel config for 2.0.30 is the same as for 2.0.31-pre7, save for
mandatory lock support (off [default] in 2.0.30, not configurable in
2.0.31). This is a showstopper at my site, where people make heavy
use of pop mail and precompiled netscape/emacs/pine/elm binaries.

Kris