4.2 lost mail

[Mark Weiser]

	Is anyone aware of a problem that causes local mail not to be delivered
	on a 4.2 system.    Once a week or so, I receive a report from someone
	who is sure that local mail was not delivered.  No error indication is
	returned to the sender and no trace of the message can be found.   I've
	confirmed a few cases, so I'm sure that all cases are not user errors.
	Any ideas?
	-Alan

Sendmail checks the load average and queues up message for later
delivery if the load is over some N (around 8 or so I think).
This mode does not work--the messages are mostly lost for ever
when the load goes over N.  You can change this magic constant
in one of the .h files to 9999, make a new sendmail, and delivery
on busy Vaxes gets much more reliable.

I find the presence of this bug to be amazing, considering all
the sendmails that are out there.  I posted this bug report a 
few months ago.  I guess most people have quiet machines.
-- 
Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark at maryland	Phone: (301) 454-7817
CSNet:	mark at umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742