[Mimedefang] General Libmilter Question

[Nate Findley]

Hi all,

I realize this isn't a libmilter specific mailing list, but I do have a 
question about why mimedefang choses to create a "multiplexor" for 
handling requests from libmilter.  

I want to write a simple filter in c that tracks incoming mail counts 
using a global variable or two.  Now, according to the libmilter docs, 
methods need to be reentrant (but I really think they just mean 
thread-safe).  So I am thinking using simple mutexes should be 
sufficient for thread safe code (which, if I understand the true concept 
of reentrant, would not work because deadlocks could occur in a 
reentrant context).

Is this why mimedefang has the multiplexor in the first place?  Does it 
make managing slaves and global data easier somehow than simply having 
the mimedefang.c code do this?  Or is the multiplexor architectural 
decision coming from a completely different angle?

This may be an obtuse question to ask, but I am very interested in 
learning more about programming in c in the context of libmilter and I 
have learned, I feel, a lot so far thanks to mimedefang!  So I 
appreciate it to say the least!

Regards,
Nate