Hi! Wilfred,

On Fri, 11 Aug 17, you wrote to me:

 PQ>> while my DOS was trying to simply _move_ half a GiB
 PQ>> of files to a filebox. Fortunately only once a 
 PQ>> day.

 WvV> If you have to do that, create the files in a temporary
 WvV> directory on the same drive as the filebox. And when the
 WvV> files are ready, do a rename to the filebox dir. Rename is
 WvV> an atomic operation on most os's afaik. So binkd won't see
 WvV> any "half" written files.

The files are created elsewhere and are then moved.  Are you saying that
the filebox reference in the binkD.cfg be updated to the temporary
directory?  ;-)  No, I'm sure you're not.  I'm guessing that a move is a
kind of rename in the underlying DOS (in fact MS-DOS 7.1).

It just takes enough time to be a problem, where the mailer wants to start
a session while the files are being created by ARJ (whose replcement with
ZIP was another project slipped in favour of Fmail), or indeed even being
moved.  The affected node (a local point system) is only effectively
undialable by the mailer for a half hour block (the smallest time period
available under the Txy standard); it's still available for the remaining
23.5 hours/day.

 PQ>> Nevertheless, can't binkD be *stalled* for a node by
 PQ>> utilizing *.?sy flags?

 WvV> The best way, of course, is to use the normal outbound
 WvV> directory in the propper way for this, and not use a
 WvV> filebox. ;)

I use both but not at the same time for the same nodes, of course.  The
fileboxes support a separate _household_ network riding on the back of Fido
I call a system of StarGates.  What goes in one comes out at another
someplace, just like StarGates in the TV series operate.  :)

Oh, and I thought that you might have been hinting to mark that Fmail uses
binkD semaphores (*.csy) while creating mail bundles for a node.  Or maybe
Fmail could in the future?

Cheers,
Paul.

--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox