Re: multithreaded use

Hello,

Luke Ehresman wrote :

> I'm excited to find libetpan!  I have been using c-client, but
> discovered its limitations in a multi-threaded environment.  I have
> searched and searched for another good C imap library, but for some
> reason never ran across this project until now.  It looks like exactly
> what I need.
> 
> I have read through the documentation and there was one question I
> still have that was left unanswered.  Is this library thread safe?  The
> c-client library is not, and I started working on making it thread
> safe, but it was going to be a massive project.

libetpan is not thread safe but it is reentrant.
That means that you can do calls from several thread if you do
manipulate different datastructure in those threads.

> I am working on a multi-user webmail system (Aeromys --
> www.aeromys.org).  Each user will have a unique connection to his or
> her mail server.  There will only be one connection per user, but there
> will be multiple users in different threads.  Will this library handle
> this situation without problems?

That kind of situation will be handled without problems.

> Along the same lines, would it be possible for me to remove the
> limitation of having only one thread working on a connection at a
> time?  By this I mean, could I have a background thread caching mail
> for the user while he/she is also browsing?  Both of these threads
> would be working on the same connection.

You will have to lock the access to the connection.
Basically, a mail access will be represented by an object 'storage', 
each time you want to access this mail access, you will have to lock 
that object.

> Thanks for your time, I am seriously hoping this library will save me
> from having to write my own.  It looks very promising.  Good work, and
> thanks.

I am using this library in a multithreaded IMAP client : etpan-ng.

-- 
DINH V. Hoa,

"ben le problème c'est que les voitures à motorisations XXL
    ça passe rarement inaperçu" -- raoul

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