remounting behavior

[Jeff Abrahamson]

In mutt (a mail user agent) attaching a file from an sfs-mounted
directory can cause errors, typically file not found or symlink
invalid. That is, when I request to attach a file to an email, mutt
doesn't recognize the sfs mount. In my particular case, the sfs
server and client are separated by a DSL line, 1.5 Mbps from server to
client, 384 kbps from client to server.

It can also happen that, on sending mail, mutt concludes that the
attached file is modified, although it has not been. I suspect
(without much evidence) that the NFS handle has simply changed.

In an xterm or emacs, by contrast, cd'ing or otherwise accessing an
sfs-mounted resource may cause a delay but no report of failure. I
haven't seen emacs claim that the underlying file has changed when it
hasn't.

I have two questions:

(1) Why might this happen in mutt but not in these other apps?

(2) What can I say to the mutt developers to help this not happen in
mutt? Or what sort of coding constructs to I want to use to fix
mutt and offer a patch?

Thanks much.