Subject: Re: fhs

From: Raul Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Aug 1996 16:37:44 -0000

Daniel Quinlan:
>  This is under discussion right now.  There are several reasons to
>  use /var/mail and several reasons to stick with /var/spool/mail.
...
>  * `mail' doesn't clearly fit the definition of spool data, unless you
>    consider users to be a resource.  :-)
...
>  # In several years, we may be able to drop a /var/spool/mail ->
>  # /var/mail symbolic link, but if we really think we need a
>  # /var/mail symbolic link, common sense would tell us that it is
>  # better to move the directory now.

I think you should look at this issue a bit differently.  In one
sense, both policies are broken -- delivering mail to a spool
directory requires sgid programs for the user to read mail (in the
usual sense).  A more secure and more robust solution would be to
deliver mail directly into the user's home directory.  For example,
      echo $HOME/Mailbox >$HOME/.forward

(Personal aside: I've not actually tried this under sendmail or smail
 -- I use qmail, which delivers to $HOME/Mailbox by default.
 Moreover, I've switched over to using $HOME/Maildir/ instead of
 $HOME/Mailbox.

 However, I've seen a problem report as recently as today about a
 popular user mail agent, that would not be a problem if mail were
 delivered into $HOME/Mailbox).

Changing from /var/spool/mail to /var/mail seems to me something of an
attempt to make a problem go away by giving it a gloss of varnish.
The change in nature mentioned to justify this change isn't really
addressed by the name change.

That said, I don't think FHS should care whether a system allows mail
to be stored under /var/mail/ or /var/spool/mail/ as long as the
symlink exists from the other name.  Installed user base is the only
valid issue here, and it pulls in both directions.  It's fine for FHS
to make a suggestion for newly created systems, but it's hard for me
to see what is gained by dictating for this case.

-- 
Raul

---

From: Dominik Kubla <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 09:29:49 +0200

>>>>> Raul Miller writes:

[quotation removed]

> echo $HOME/Mailbox >$HOME/.forward

That might work for you, but not for others: If your home directory
is located in an AFS volume, then you will either need to open the
directory to a certain pseudo-group/user for WRITES or your sendmail
(or whatever) will need to run with the CellAdministrator token.

Not good.

And /var/mail is standardized (to my knowledge) by SVID and XPG, so
why re-invent the wheel again?

Dominik
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