PMDF User's Guide
OpenVMS Edition
PMDF-USR-VMS-6.0

4.5 Limitations

There are no known bugs in PMDF's DELIVER subsystem at this time. However, there are a few minor nuisances which users should be aware of:

It is difficult to debug MAIL.DELIVERY files since there is no way to watch deliver process the file except by enabling debug code in DELIVER (which is not an option normal users can exercise). However, the L action can be used to create a log file of the DCL commands DELIVER executes on behalf of the user when processing a message:
```
! Log commands executed in a file unconditionally 
* * * A L DELIVER.LOG 
* * * A E @DO_SOMETHING.COM 
```
Such log files are always placed in the user's home directory. Also note that output from command files invoked by DELIVER can be captured in a file by using the /OUTPUT qualifier:
```
! Execute a command file with logging 
* * * A E @DO_SOMETHING.COM/OUTPUT=DO_SOMETHING.LOG 
```
DELIVER does watch for users sending messages to themselves and then tries to be somewhat more informative than is usual about any errors it finds in MAIL.DELIVERY files.
Much of the line and symbol processing done by DELIVER uses 252 character buffers. In particular, parameters in MAIL.DELIVERY files are limited to a maximum of 252 characters each. Most lines processed by DELIVER are limited to PMDF's usual 1024 character maximum. Lines output to command files are a special case; DELIVER must respect DCL's builtin 256-character line length limit. This may impose even more severe restrictions on symbol assignments and other commands than DELIVER does.
DELIVER usually silently truncates lines rather than complaining about line lengths.

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