On Friday, March 7, 2003, at 07:32 am, Charlie Brady wrote:
On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, Caskey L. Dickson wrote:
On Thursday, March 6, 2003, at 07:04 am, Charlie Brady wrote:
It is my implicit
belief that an IMAP server deals with multiple simultaneous client
connections, but multiple separate instances of itself is another issue.
Dealing with multiple simultaneous clients pretty much implies dealing with multiple instances of the server.
I'm drawing a distinction here between one instance of a server having multiple client connections and multiple instances of a server running, each modifying the same mail store.
I realise that you are making that distinction, but I am saying that it isn't a useful one. Most (all?) *nix IMAP servers have a single client
Don't forget we're talking about simultaneous modification of a mail store.
With one instance of a server, it is required to support multiple simultaneous connections from clients, and in this sense, the Binc instance is a single MUA which is rightfully expected to manage its own interactions with the mail store. However, this assumption does not extend to multiple instances of the server, on the same or different hosts.
The fact that each connection is most likely handled by a separate process is totally irrelevant. My point is this:
* It is reasonable to assume that (and required that) an instance of Binc (or any IMAP server) correctly manages concurrent access to one instance of itself.
* It is UNreasonable to assume that multiple instances of Binc (or any combination of IMAP servers) manage concurrent access to the mail store.
IFF the concurrency controls implemented by Binc (or any other IMAP server)
happen to work irrespective of instances as well as connections then the behavior you desire will arise, but it is not required by IMAP and more importantly, has non trivial implementation considerations to do so.
So in every case you need to deal with multiple instances of the daemon.
Sorry, this is wrong. You cannot start out by saying that "most (all?)" and then claim that it covers every case, because it does not.
Furthermore, Binc doesn't currently lock the mail store for structural modifications, and I can think of numerous ways of implementing this that are all correct but do not manage multiple instances. Something that is not required by IMAP.
C=)
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If software were really an engineering field, we would learn as engineers
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Caskey <caskey*technocage.com> /// TechnoCage Inc.
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