From: syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Elm 2.3 Bugs -- Does 2.4 fix them?
Date: 23 Jan 93 03:08:02 GMT
Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc., Huntingdon Valley, PA
NNTP-Posting-Host: dsinc.dsi.com

schwim@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Rosebud) writes:
>	There's a few bugs I've seen in 2.3PL11.  Some are just
>annoying, some are nasty.  2.4 won't be installed on the systems I use
>until it is stable for a while, but I wanted to know if these bugs
>were fixed or addressed.  (Or, are they features?)

>1) Clobbering files when over quota

>	Elm doesn't check the return value of a write to a file, or if
>it does, it blithefully ignores it.  If a user is over quota and elm
>saves a letter to a file, the letter is not saved.  The letter is then
>marked for deletion.  The letter is thus lost.
>	If a person reads and modifies a folder in an account which is
>over quota, the file is truncated to zero bytes.
>	If a write fails, elm should notify the user.  If the file
>cannot be written back to the user's directory, elm should exit with
>the original file in the tmp directory and a glaring error message.

This was mostly fixed in 2.3, except for a close call not being 
checked.  2.4 does a different write call, and checks it, so I'd
call it fixed.

>2) Improper expansion of ~

>	In other programs I use ((t)csh, rn, tin, mail, etc) ~ is
>expanded to the value of the environmental variable (getenv).  Elm
>appears to use the pasword entry of the user's root directory
>(getpwuid).
>	I understand why elm needs the .elm directory in the user's
>root directory, but there's no reason to assume that the user's root
>directory and $HOME are the same thing.  If $HOME is defined it should
>use that.  (It also seems reasonable to look for or create the Mail
>directory.)
>	If your elmrc file specifies your mail directory as
>$HOME/Mail, elm uses the environmental variable, so it definitely is
>aware of what $HOME should be.

This one is a feature.  Elm ignores $HOME, so that when su'd you read
the right mail file.  Its a choice of one or the other and we chose
to allow su over $HOME.

>3) Deletion of the letter being composed if connection dies and elm
>	quits
nope, it still works that way in 2.4, and will until 3.x.

>4) Bugs in saving to ~$USER/Cancelled.mail in send only mode

>	elm is kind enough to save the mail body to the file
>Cancelled.mail in the user's root directory if invoked in send only
>mode.  If you cancel the message, it gives the exit message:

>	Message saved in file "$HOME/Cancelled.mail"
well, it saves it in its idea of home, we changed the message in 2.4
to indicate where its actually stored.

>Well, it is not saving the file to $HOME/Cancelled.mail.  It is saving
>also a security/privacy risk for many users.  (afs permissions are
>directory not file based.)
(Thats afs's problem, Elm only claims to be a UNIX mail agent :-)
and that works for UNIX file syntax)

>	Also, it would be nice if it saved the header of the letter,
>too.
It doesn't really know the headers at that point, (internal reasons)
so that won't happen at least until 3.x.

>5) Hard coded path in the default user's elmrc file

>	Why?
because....

-- 
========================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP          Elm Coordinator - Current 2.4PL20
Datacomp Systems, Inc.                 Projected 3.0 Release: ??? ?,1994
syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd      Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm