Re: Email permissions - was Email embarrasment
On Sat, Apr 14, 2001 at 11:55:52AM +0200, Johann Spies wrote:
> Then I sent three test messages: one using xfmail (which is working
> again), one using netscape and one using the mail-command from the
> console.
>
> As user hs I did a mailq with the following result: ...
> As root I did a mailq: ...
>
> The netscape message was missing from hs' mailq. Why?
This is almost normal, I think:
09:57 $ sudo mail -s test nobody@utk.edu < /dev/null
Null message body; hope that's ok
09:58 $ mail -s test nobody@utk.edu < /dev/null
Null message body; hope that's ok
09:58 $ mailq
0m 315 14oQZL-0002Pi-00 <robm@mad.scientist.com>
nobody@utk.edu
09:58 $ sudo mailq
0m 289 14oQZJ-0002PV-00 <root@peon>
nobody@utk.edu
0m 315 14oQZL-0002Pi-00 <robm@mad.scientist.com>
nobody@utk.edu
As root:
[/var/spool/exim/input]
10:03 # ls
total 4
-rw------- 1 mail mail 19 Apr 14 09:58 14oQZJ-0002PV-00-D
-rw------- 1 mail mail 472 Apr 14 09:58 14oQZJ-0002PV-00-H
-rw------- 1 mail mail 19 Apr 14 09:58 14oQZL-0002Pi-00-D
-rw------- 1 mail mail 580 Apr 14 09:58 14oQZL-0002Pi-00-H
[/var/spool/exim/input]
10:03 # grep root *
14oQZJ-0002PV-00-H:root 0 0
[more lines about root in root's message header]
[/var/spool/exim/input]
10:03 # grep alphenglor *
14oQZL-0002Pi-00-H:alphenglor 1000 1000
[more lines about alphenglor in alphenglor's message header]
>From the exim man page:
If Exim is called under the name mailq, it behaves as if
the option -bp were present before any other options. This
...
-bp List the contents of the mail queue on the current
output. If the -bp option is followed by a list of
message ids, then just those messages are listed.
By default, this option lists only those messages
submitted by the calling user unless the caller is
an admin user. The queue_list_requires_admin option
can be set false to allow any user to see the
entire queue.
So my guess from what you've said is that netscape is either being run
as root or is using some setuid program somewhere to feed its mail
into exim's queue (I seem to remember netscape having it's own program
called "movemail"?)
> I remember that either netscape or xfmail asked me to change the
> permissions on /var/mail to 01777.
>
> That is not what it is on my system. Can that be the cause of this
> all?
I have
10:11 # ls -d /var/mail
drwxrwsr-x 2 root mail 1024 Apr 14 09:57 /var/mail
which is 02775 and looks right to me. If a Debian package asked you
to change the permissions on /var/mail, you should probably report
that as a bug against the package.
It seems that your messages are getting onto your queue. Are they
still not getting delivered? Try running exim -q -d as root and see
what it tells you.
Rob
--
No wonder you're tired! You understood so much today.
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