  Safecat
  Len Budney
  August 8, 1998

  11..  IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn


  safecat is an implementation of D. J. Bernstein's maildir algorithm.
  It can be used to write mail messages to a qmail-style maildir, or to
  write data to a "spool" directory reliably. There are no lockfiles
  with safecat, and nothing is left to chance. If safecat returns a
  successful exit status, then you can be (practically) 100% sure your
  data is safely committed to disk. Further, if data is written to a
  directory using safecat (or other implementations of the maildir
  algorithm), then every file in that directory is guaranteed to be
  complete. If safecat fails to write all of the data, there will be no
  file at all in the destination directory.

  Of course, you know that such a thing cannot be: between UNIX and the
  different hardware options available, a 100% guarantee is not
  possible. However, safecat takes every precaution possible in writing
  your data.

  22..  GGeettttiinngg ssaaffeeccaatt


  The source code for safecat may be downloaded from
  <http://www.pobox.com/~lbudney/linux/software/safecat.html> or from
  sunsite or one of its mirrors. To build and install safecat, follow
  the instructions in the included INSTALL file. To summarize:

  ./configure
  make
  make install



  33..  CCooppyyiinngg


  safecat is offered under the terms of the General Public License. The
  included file COPYING is a copy of the GPL. Applications bundled with
  or using safecat need not be offered under the GPL, but must offer
  source code for safecat itself in order to comply with this license.

  44..  CCrreeddiittss


  The maildir algorithm implemented in safecat was devised by Professor
  D.  J. Bernstein, and is implemented in his qmail mailer. Other
  (approximate) implementations of the algorithm exist, in procmail,
  mutt, and the Emacs mailreader Mew, but to my knowledge this is the
  only standalone implementation, and the most complete implementation
  outside of qmail itself.












