This document describes how to build elm under MkLinux DR1. (If you are using MkLinux DR2, different notes apply.) The notes below apply to elm 2.4, patchlevel 25, available at, e.g., ftp.myxa.com or ftp.uu.net.
Note: Previously this page described how to build elm by forcing it to be compiled with flock() locking turned on. I now believe those instructions to be incorrect, because although they worked to get around the mailbox-reading problem described below, they unfortunately did not interoperate properly with procmail (the MkLinux default mail delivery agent). If you used the previous instructions to build elm, it would be better to rebuild using the instructions below. My apologies.
Getting elm to compile under MkLinux is not difficult: run Configure and give reasonable answers to the questions. Two important things to note during the configuration process:
If you like, take a look at my config.sh file. You can compare it with yours if you have problems.
After running Configure, type make to build the elm distribution. To install the distribution, su to root and type make install.
If you try to use elm as is, you will find that, except for root, elm does not read user mailboxes correctly. It prints a "Waiting to read mailbox while mail is being received" message, eventually timing out and quitting.
This is apparently due to incorrect permissions on the mailbox directory. The same problem also affects procmail, and causes slow mail delivery in out-of-the-box MkLinux. To fix this problem so that elm works correctly, change directory into /var/spool and (as root) change the permissions on the mail directory so they look like this:
drwxrwxr-x 2 root mail 1024 Jul 3 12:06 mail
You change accomplish this with the following commands:
# chown root.mail mail
# chmod 775 mail
Also, be sure to read about the procmail
slow-delivery problem and how to fix it.
9 October 1996
19 July 1996
9 July 1996