Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!samsung!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-sdd!apollo!apollo.hp.com!kr
From: kr@apollo.HP.COM (Keith Alan Rodwell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Sharing /usr/spool/mail
Keywords: BSD,mail
Message-ID: <46dc33bb.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 89 00:26:00 GMT
References: <2614@unisoft.UUCP>
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Reply-To: kr@apollo.HP.COM (Keith Alan Rodwell)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 24

In article <2614@unisoft.UUCP>, cander@unisoft.UUCP (Charles Anderson) writes:
> Real simple question: can I share /usr/spool/mail between a bunch of
> machines on the Token Ring?  All machines are running SR 10.1 with BSD
> 4.3 installed.  The mail system is sendmail.  Can one machine be a mail
> server and everyone else just have symbolic links from /usr/spool/mail
> to //server/usr/spool/mail?  This would allow everyone to read mail
> from any machine in the network, right?  Are there any caveats?

	Yes, there are a few gotcha's that you will need to pay attention
to.  First, if you are uning sys5 /bin/mail it is possible to trample a
users mail file if several machines are writing to a given mail box at one
time (have seen this when nightly scripts went off and mailed all the results
at the same time to root).  If you are running sendmail, you will probably
want to spend the effort to have all sendmail daemons point to just one.  This
way you can prohibit more than one sendmail from trampling.  If you have any
other questions, go ahead and give the 800 number a call...


------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
``This theory which is mine, is mine'' -- Ann Elk (Monty Python)
Keith Alan Rodwell
Apollo/HP Customer Support
(508)-256-6600 X8415