Re: ~/.bbdb with multiple emacs instnaces

> Because of gnus limitations, I use one emacs intance per IMAP/SMTP
> server, for example for work and personal email.
> 
> It seems that bbdb leaves the ~/.bbdb file open, causing problems
> with locks. Sometimes if I send email from instance A when I've
> previously sent from instance B, I must steal the ~/.bbdb file in
> A.
> 
> Is there a bbdb option to help with this problem?

What do you mean by "leaves the ~/.bbdb file open"?

Emacs uses file locks when you edit a file but have not yet saved
your changes on disk.  So this happens also with ~/.bbdb if you modify
this file, but have not yet saved it.  It seems dangerous to me to
have multiple emacs sessions updating your ~/.bbdb (or any other file).

You could use the variable bbdb-read-only to make sure that only one
emacs session can modify your ~/.bbdb (this variable should be nil
only in one session).  Or make sure that any changes you make to
your bbdb database are saved immediately into ~/.bbdb (but I'd call
this dangerous...).

Otherwise, I'd dig into gnus: I am not using it myself, but I
thought it can do pretty much anything.  Are you sure it supports
only one IMAP/SMTP session per emacs session?  I am using
old-fashioned VM where multiple such sessions are no problem, I do
this all the time.