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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!steinmetz!ge-dab!cadsun!cochran
From: cochran@cadsun.DAB.GE.COM (Craig Cochran)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: central mail server
Keywords: mail
Message-ID: <1381@ge-dab.GE.COM>
Date: 5 Oct 88 13:16:36 GMT
References: <363@asuvax.UUCP> <464@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> <9449@swan.ulowell.edu>
Sender: news@ge-dab.GE.COM
Reply-To: cochran@ge-dab.GE.COM (Craig Cochran)
Organization: GE Simulation & Control Systems Dept., Daytona Beach, FL
Lines: 38

In article <9449@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes:
>
>[The problem is how to make a user's mailbox available on any machine
> they log into]
>
>Andrew.Findlay@brunel.ac.uk (Andrew Findlay) wrote:
>>We put the mailbox in the [NFS] home directory, so it is visible
>>on all machines.
>
>How do you deal with record locking over NFS?
>
>We do something similar (we export /usr/spool/mail, a questionable
>practice in itself) but tell everyone to read mail from one host so
>their mail doesn't get clobbered.
>
>I'd like to find a better way.
>
>..Bob
>-- 
>Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page

At GE, Daytona Beach, we have a network of over 100 Suns with a
common set of mailboxes.  We have the spool area in a commonly
mounted area, with /usr/spool/mail as a link to this area on
all machines.  Then the sendmail.cf files are configured to
let one system, the mail server, route all mail, so that only
one system appends to anyone's mailbox.  Any system may read
the mail.  This has worked fine with no problems, with users
constantly reading their mail from different machines.

-Craig


--
Craig S. Cochran <cochran@ge-dab.GE.COM> 
                                            General Electric Company
UUCP:   ...!mcnc!ge-rtp!ge-dab!cochran      1800 Volusia Ave, Rm 4112
Phone:  (904) 239-3124                      Daytona Beach, FL 32015