Article 135595 of comp.os.vms:
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From: jwinkle@gcad.doit.wisc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,vmsnet.networks.tcp-ip.ucx
Subject: Nasty interaction between MAIL and SMTP; new addresses for MAILSHR_PATCH
Date: 6 Dec 1995 17:25:40 GMT
Organization: UW-Madison, Genetics Computing At DoIT (GCAD)
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Because of a nasty interaction between MAIL in 5.5-2 and UCX SMTP
(more on that below), I needed to install the VAXMAIL05_061 patch
(MAIL.EXE, MAILSHR.EXE, MAILSHRP.EXE, and MAIL_SERVER.EXE). 

Since I had previously applied the public domain MAILSHR_PATCH patch
that allows users to not type SMTP%"..." (or whatever%"...") at the
"To:" prompt in MAIL, I needed to modify MAILSHR_PATCH and thought I
might as well post the new addresses in case others need this. Someone
may want to stick this in the distribution version of MAILSHR_PATCH.

Simply add the following lines to MAILSHR_PATCH_FOR_AT_VAX_61.COM,
following the straight VMS 6.1 addresses.

-------------Begin new code----------------------------------
!
! The following applies to the VAXMAIL05_061 kit (for VAX).
! Jim Winkle (jwinkle@gcad.doit.wisc.edu), 5-Dec-1995.
! 
DEF
MAIL$$ADD_ADDR
00004B22
ADD_ADDR
00004A33
EXI
-------------End new code------------------------------------

About the "nasty interaction"... in the version of MAIL that comes
with 5.5-2 (maybe others), if a user sends UCX SMTP MAIL to another
user whose MAIL.MAI file is locked, SMTP will discover that the
MAIL.MAI is locked, log such a message in
SYS$SPECIFIC:[UCX_SMTP]UCX$SMTP_LOGFILE.LOG, and then proceed to log
an infinite number of errors in UCX$SMTP_LOGFILE.LOG that look like:

%%%%%%%%%%%%                   16-NOV-1995 13:42:15.17  %%%%%%%%%%%%
%MAIL-E-SENDERR, error sending to user SYSMGR

-MAIL-E-SENDERR, error sending to user SYSMGR

-SYSTEM-W-UNWIND, unwind currently in progress

Did I mention that it logs an infinite number of errors? Quickly? The
next one came along at 13:42:15.25. 

Of course, the log file (at least on my system) lives on the system
disk, so then the system disk fills up, and you're left with a system
brought to its knees simply because someone was COMPRESSing their MAIL
(or whatever). This chewed up about 120MB in 11 hours on a VAXstation
4000/60.

I don't know which versions of UCX are affected by this, but I'm
running UCX 3.3 ECO 1. I imagine many versions near this are affected.

--
Jim Winkle, GCAD System Manager   jwinkle@gcad.doit.wisc.edu 608-262-9507
GCAD=Genetics Computing At DoIT   DoIT=Division of Information Technology
University of Wisconsin - Madison


