Summary: Sendmail, load average, and /vmunix files

From: Saul Tannenbaum <stannenb_at_emerald.tufts.edu>
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 23:44:41 -0400 (EDT)

I wrote:

> I recently discovered that the stock Berkeley sendmail (8.6.12) will
> not run the mail queue if the /vmunix file you have in place isn't
> the one from which you booted the OSF. This is because sendmail's
> attempt to calculate the load average fails, sendmail believes that
> you're over the load average threshold, and declines to run the
> queue.

I've been clearly informed that moving /vmunix files out from under
the running kernel is a bad thing, and that I'm lucky that sendmail
was the only thing that broke.

I'm still looking for anyone who may have patched sendmail to use sysinfo
or table, which will work regardless of the name of the currently running
kernel.

For those who have asked why I was doing such a silly thing, I'll just
note that this has all been done under the watchful eye of Digital support
as we work through some horrendous reliability problems related to AdvFS.
No comment has ever been made by them that this wasn't a good methodology.

Thanks to:

        alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com (Alan Rollow -
                Dr. File System's Home for Wayward Inodes.)
        John Stoffel <john_at_WPI.EDU>
        William Gianopoulos {84718} <wag_at_swl.msd.ray.com>
        Sid Fagan - Sublimation MAN (NID) <fagan_at_large.fnal.gov>
        System Janitor <hubcap_at_hubcap.clemson.edu>
        "Paul E. Rockwell" <rockwell_at_rch.dec.com>

for the informative responses.

        - Saul
-- 
Saul Tannenbaum, Manager, Academic Systems | "It's still rocket  
                stannenb_at_emerald.tufts.edu |    science" - Vint Cerf
Tufts University Computing and             |
                Communications Services    |
Received on Mon Jun 19 1995 - 06:30:24 NZST

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