emacs question

[Jeffrey Leitner]

I have a user in Cypress that has one
of our NAS 200 boxes with SFU installed.

They claim when they use emacs 21.1.1
in a unix to unix environment they have no issues.  However when they
use the IBM NAS 200, Win2K based with Services for Unix and try to edit
a file that resides on the NAS (with an AIX box) they get the following
message...

"<filename> changed on disk,
really edit the buffer(y,n,r or C-h)? "

The CU uses gnu emacs ver 21.1.1 and xemacs ver 21.1 (both were installed from AIX  Toolbox for Linux Applications)  
They do not get this error when using vi in the same environment.

The customer has input the following:
Open  a file with emacs, that resides
on NAS file system.
Then try to open again (with  emacs),
a file that resides on "pure" AIX filesystem  i.e /tmp.
In both  files, write something,
save it, and  just wait 1-2 min.
If your try to append something in both files, the result will not be the
same. 
In the first case, you will get the
message from emacs that ""<filename> changed on disk, really
edit the buffer(y,n,r or C-h)? ".  

In the second case, if you try to append
to the file that was opened from /tmp, you will be able to append and continue
writing with  
no warnings.

The claim is that they are  be
sure that the problem is related with NAS and not with emacs.
I have combed the internet and found
this message to be a superfluous, common message.  
Going onto discover that emacs uses
buffers as it common element to save and transfer files. It seems, buffer
messages are routine.

The customer wishes to recreate the
scenario on a standard W2K box running SFU to see if it will show up there
as well.
Based on my finding, this seems pointless.

Question:
1) Is this a common element found with
emacs or windows in this type of set up?
If so,
2) What is causing this message and
what can the Customer do to prevent it?



Thanks,

Jeff Leitner
Product Engineer | IBM  Storage Systems Group | SAN/NAS/Router Support
Internet mail:  leitnerj@us.ibm.com | Phone 919-254-0842 (TL 444)
|  FAX 919-543-8677

My shipping address:

600 Park Offices Dr.
EC1A/Bldg 660/E208
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709