At 3:35 PM +0100 3/4/08, Edgar Fuß wrote:
Anyway I also thought that /var/mail would be sticky in at least some systems. I couldn't find a single one. CentOS 5, Debian, FreeBSD 6.2, Solaris 10 none have it sticky by default. It seems to be sticky on NetBSD.
Whether a directory used for system mboxes (sometimes /var/mail, sometimes /var/spool/mail, sometimes /usr/spool/mail *EWWW* ) needs to be 1777 or 0775 or Something Else is a function of what sort of LDA(s) and MUA(s) and mailstore server(s) need to access it and what some admin has done in the past to make it work.
The core problem is that anything changing mailboxes there probably needs to be able to create and delete both mailbox files and lockfiles there, so either you need to have a bunch of well-vetted setgid software or you need to use a 1777 or 3777 mail spool.
The best alternative would be a working mandatory lock system in the OS and good gatekeeping on the creation and deletion of mboxes, but that's not a combination that multi-platform software can count on...
-- Bill Cole bill@scconsult.com