Subject: PINE loops on zero mail check interval

From: Dave Horsfall <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 15:38:03 +1000 (EST)

[ I sent a detailed bug report some weeks ago, and haven't even had
  the courtesy of a reply, hence this post. ]

PINE 4.10, on Solaris 2.5.  Self-compiled.  Runs in X-Windows, or
more precisely, OpenWindows using X-Vision on a Windoze PeeCee.

My mail file is somewhat large (we're talking ~10Mb, and ~2000 items;
OK, so I must clean it up) and it can take say 30 seconds to check for
new mail, which is pretty aggravating.

When setting mail-check-interval to 0 to turn off mail checking, PINE
will eventually loop.  This is reproducible with another user.

Debugging shows it's stuck in the function display_message(), doing
a series of time()/alarm() calls, so it looks like it's trying to
write some sort of a message.  A brief look at the source indicates
that it may be confused by mail-check-interval being zero, but it's
hard to tell (I rarely have enough time to debug my own stuff!).

Has anyone else experienced this?  I've currently set the interval to
65536, as a workaround, which in turn leads me to...

Can PINE's obnoxious "feature" of checking for new messages at apparently
random times be turned off?  I know it checks at intervals, and on the
"n" command on the last message, but other actions also seem to trigger
it, which possibly explains the above problem.

Don't get me wrong - I love PINE, and will not use anything else - but
this little problems take the shine off a great product.

-- 
Dave Horsfall VK2KFU  [email-masked]  Ph: +61 2 9978-7493 Fx: +61 2 9978-7422
Geac Computers P/L (FGH Division) 2/57 Christie St, St Leonards 2065, Australia

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From: Edward M Greshko <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 23:10:25 +0800 (GMT)

> new mail, which is pretty aggravating.

I run pine in much the same way that you do.  However, I don't allow my
INBOX to grow as large as you have.

If you frequently allow your INBOX to get this large you may wish to
consider switching to a different INBOX format.  The mbx format is
probably best for your situation.  If you pickup the imap distribution
there are 2 files in the docs directory which explain the different
formats available and their merits.

You should also consider upgrading to Solaris7 and then doing a recompile
on pine.  Having done so, the binary itself reduces in size from about
8Meg to 4Meg.

Regards,
Ed

-- 
Edward M. Greshko                  Technical Manager, Electronic Commerce
GSM: +65-975-10860                 Control Data Asia/Pacific Region
PGPKey-ID:CA3AFA5D  Fingerprint: 2DE6 5527 144E D1BC  3C55 9FA5 518E 52EE