Bug#42052: PROPOSAL] /var/mail and /var/spool/mail
On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, Anthony Towns wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 04, 1999 at 12:16:51PM -0700, Carl R. Witty wrote:
> > > On Tue, Aug 03, 1999 at 08:32:57AM -0700, Joseph Carter wrote:
> > > > > I second this proposal, but please change the word "dependency"
> > > > > by "Pre-Dependency"
> > > Why does /var/mail have to exist before those packages are unpacked?
> > Others have explained that this is probably not necessary for MTA's.
> > However, it still seems necessary for MUA's. On a multi-user system,
> > any unpacked MUA could possibly get executed while the package is
> > unconfigured, and before base-files is configured.
>
> However, that MUA would presumably get run by a non-root user, who couldn't
> create a subdirectory with /var, which isn't world-writable.
>
> And while that may cause the MUA to do "weird" things (like read the user's
> mail via /var/spool/mail, or die saying "can't find your mail"), for an
> unconfigured package, this doesn't seem unreasonable.
It would be unreasonable that we claim that we can upgrade the system
"in place" without it being true.
Pre-Depends are absolutely needed for MUAs.
It is 100% certain that *every* MTA is stopped in the postrm? If so, I
will not mind that policy is reworded so that it says "Pre-Depends for
MUAs, Depends for MTAs".
Thanks.
--
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