Re: are you using /var/mail?
On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Daniel Quinlan wrote:
> There is speculation that /var/spool/mail has remained the "real"
> standard for Linux despite what FHS 2.0 says.
>
> If you are a Linux developer/distribution/company/etc. currently using
> /var/mail (as specified in FHS 2.0) instead of /var/spool/mail, please
> let me know. I think glibc 2.1 has made the change to _PATH_MAILDIR in
> paths.h, but that's all I know about.
>
> If nobody is using it, we can consider changing it back. If not, then
> we'll just specifically allow a symbolic link at /var/mail to point to
> the real spool directory (or something like that).
Ideally, from an ABI perspective, applications wouldn't need to know the
path at all. They would have an API in a shared library to use to access
and manipulate the mail folders. Isn't this was MAPI does on M$? The OS
would provide the shared library configured the right way for that OS.
I haven't looked closely, but I think that the c-client library comes
close to doing this.
MUAs should use such a library, and MTAs are probably complicated enough
that they would be configurable via a config file anyway.
Stuart
Stuart R. Anderson anderson@metrolink.com
Metro Link Incorporated South Carolina Office
4711 North Powerline Road 105 Fox Ridge Run
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309 Lexington, SC 29072
voice: 954.938.0283 voice: 803.951.3630
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