in var/spool/mail, same entry with different users.... - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

#1 11-08-2002

i am on aix,
in the /var/spool/mail ,i have an entry as below, after doing a ls -ltr

-rw-rw---- 1 ai mail 3898 Sep 02 11:26 mei
-rw-rw---- 1 root mail 22900 Nov 08 14:55 root

shouldnt the ai and mei be the same just like root, root?

thanks

Perderabo · #2 11-08-2002

Grep ai and mei from /etc/passwd. Do they have different uid's? If not, then when you do "chown mei somefile" and "ls -l somefile", you will see ai as the owner if ai is first in /etc/passwd.

RTM · #3 11-08-2002

This can also happen if you had a user mei who left the company and the file for mail was not deleted. Then a user called ai is created with the same uid as what mei had. Then it looks as if ai owns any files mei owned before.

Normally seen on home directories at my site since home directories are not deleted when a person leaves (just in case the department needs it for some reason).

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