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From: reuss@ni.umd.edu (Karl Reuss)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Ultrix mail fun
Keywords: mail spool ultrix
Message-ID: <1991Feb15.195201.29186@ni.umd.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 19:52:01 GMT
References: <1991Feb13.171221.21304@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <1991Feb15.161545.993@hollie.rdg.dec.com>
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In article <1991Feb15.161545.993@hollie.rdg.dec.com> jch@dyfed.rdg.dec.com (John Haxby) writes:
>./usr/bin/mail is setgid kmem because is bases lock time-outs on the load
>average which is gets from /dev/kmem. [I know this is wrong, it'll be fixed
>in a possible future release] I don't believe binmail checks the
>permissions on /usr/spool/mail (or whatever the alias is), but it is fairly
>careful about the permissions and properties of files that it tries to drop
>mail in. 

What's always bothered me about Ultrix /usr/bin/mail is that after it does
all of the wonderfull checking when opening a mailbox, it never checks
for errors after a write.  Can you guess what happens if your disk is 100 full ?
/usr/bin/mail may never write a line of your message, but it exits normally, 
sendmail never sees there is a problem, and your mail gets black holed with
no one being informed.

-Karl Reuss