in var/spool/mail, same entry with different users....


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers in var/spool/mail, same entry with different users....
# 1  
Old 11-08-2002
in var/spool/mail, same entry with different users....

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
yls177
# 2  
Old 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.
# 3  
Old 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).
 
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. AIX

/var/spool/mail/ issues

Hi My box is running with AIX 6100-06 and Im the root user of this box My /var gets filled up often to 100% When I investigate I find that it is the below file which increases rapidly /var/spool/mail/pdgadmin I dont know why this file is growing up. Can any one assist me on this.... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: samsungsamsung
2 Replies

2. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Mail going to /var/spool/mqueue instead of being sent

Hello, I have a bunch of cron jobs in the crontab. For some reason mail from the cron jobs started going to /var/spool/mqueue instead of being sent. Does anyone know why mail from cron jobs would go to the queue instead of being sent? (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: xadamz23
9 Replies

3. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

mail is not sent, instead just coping into /var/spool/queue dir

Hi, I have some problems w/ the sendmail. I see that messages are queued in the /var/spool/mqueue and they are never sent to the recipients. This problem just suddenly started without any modifications in the current configuration. I already started and stop the sendmail and it did not help.... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: ktanya
3 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

/var/spool/mail

Hi, How can i get my mail on either /var/spool/mail or /var/mail? I use mail and sendmail command to send mail. But everytime I send mail it comes to my outlook inbox and when I check with mail command I get the message "No mail for siba". (Note siba is my user Id.) (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: siba.s.nayak
2 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Sendmail /VAR/SPOOL/MAIL

Hi, First Question: In our company our users have their mailboxes in /var/spool/mail When I look at the users file it seems as if every email sent/received is in that user file! Is this because IMAP is being used or is that just how sendmail works? Second Question: How is that when I create... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: mojoman
3 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

/VAR/SPOOL/MAIL question

Hi, We have all the user account in a home direcory where their mail is stored and retrieved by email clients. We do however have /var/spool/mail with all the user accounts in it as well Our sendmail.cf is configured to use /var/spool/mqueue as the queue so .what is /var/spool/mail being used... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: mojoman
3 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How do I read mail in /var/spool/mail?

How can I read mail sent to /var/spool/mail? I do not have pine installed so forget about that...is there some generic utility I can use? (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: mojoman
3 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Can I zero var/spool/mail/mail

The mail file in the directory var/spool/mail is very large. Can I zero this (>) without losing any unopened mails there may be? There are about 10 mail accounts. Using RedHat Linux. Thanks in advance. (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: dennisheazle
0 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Can I delete the file var/spool/mail/news?

The file var/spool/mail/news has grown very large and takes up too much space. Can I delete this without any problem? (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: dennisheazle
3 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How safe is it to remove files(/var/spool/mail)?

How safe is it to remove these spooler mail files. I need to make some room in the /usr directory? Any ideas? thanks (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: larcom61
2 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question