Debian Bug report logs - #46598
procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Date: 4 Oct 1999 10:59:30 -0000

Package: procmail
Version: 3.13.1-2
Severity: normal

I'm using qmail as MTA with mailboxes in home directories as `Mailbox'.
I've removed the whole /var/spool/mail directory.
In my .procmailrc I haven't got any line containing /var/spool/... or so.
But I got this message in my syslog after every mail :

Oct  4 12:56:26 oxygene qmail: 939034587.003341 delivery 2944: success: procmail:_Couldn't_create_"/var/spool/mail/lgb"/did_0+0+1/

This is not problem since procmail seems to work but it's very annoying.
What can be the problem ?

Thanx : Gabor Lenart

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux oxygene 2.2.12 #8 Mon Sep 20 22:58:18 CEST 1999 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages procmail depends on:
ii  debianutils     1.13           Miscellaneous utilities specific to Debian.
ii  libc6           2.1.2-5        GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone

Message #10 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>

To: Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>, 46598@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 17:32:55 +0200 (CET)

On 4 Oct 1999, Gabor Lenart Z warrior wrote:

> Package: procmail
> Version: 3.13.1-2
> Severity: normal
> 
> I'm using qmail as MTA with mailboxes in home directories as `Mailbox'.
> I've removed the whole /var/spool/mail directory.
> In my .procmailrc I haven't got any line containing /var/spool/... or so.
> But I got this message in my syslog after every mail :
> 
> Oct  4 12:56:26 oxygene qmail: 939034587.003341 delivery 2944: success: procmail:_Couldn't_create_"/var/spool/mail/lgb"/did_0+0+1/
> 
> This is not problem since procmail seems to work but it's very annoying.
> What can be the problem ?

I think the problem is that you removed /var/spool/mail...

This is from procmail(1)

FILES

       /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
                              system  mailbox;  both  the  system
                              mailbox and the immediate directory
                              it  is in will be created everytime
                              procmail starts and either  one  is
                              not present

Do you still consider this as a bug?

-- 
 "4724ae65d76b3a7c9a3946eaa3a77e3a" (a truly random sig)

Message #15 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: miquels@cistron.nl (Miquel van Smoorenburg)

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Date: 5 Oct 1999 18:09:28 +0200

In article <cistron.Pine.LNX.3.96.991005172418.5749A-100000@cantor.unex.es>,
Santiago Vila  <sanvila@unex.es> wrote:
>This is from procmail(1)
>
>FILES
>
>       /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
>                              system  mailbox;  both  the  system
>                              mailbox and the immediate directory
>                              it  is in will be created everytime
>                              procmail starts and either  one  is
>                              not present
>
>Do you still consider this as a bug?

Well, I didn't submit the bugreport but I consider it a bug. Especially
since /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME is a maildir-style mailbox around here.
I talked this over with the current upstream maintainer and even sent
him a bunch of patches that generalised several parts of procmail,
and in the process fixed this as well, but for reasons beyond me he
didn't think it was a bug and no patches got applied.

So even if you do think it's a bug, good luck getting it fixed ..

Mike.
-- 
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Message #20 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>

To: Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>, 46598@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 11:26:33 +0200 (CET)

On 5 Oct 1999, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:

> In article <cistron.Pine.LNX.3.96.991005172418.5749A-100000@cantor.unex.es>,
> Santiago Vila  <sanvila@unex.es> wrote:
> >This is from procmail(1)
> >
> >FILES
> >
> >       /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
> >                              system  mailbox;  both  the  system
> >                              mailbox and the immediate directory
> >                              it  is in will be created everytime
> >                              procmail starts and either  one  is
> >                              not present
> >
> >Do you still consider this as a bug?
> 
> Well, I didn't submit the bugreport but I consider it a bug. Especially
> since /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME is a maildir-style mailbox around here.
> I talked this over with the current upstream maintainer and even sent
> him a bunch of patches that generalised several parts of procmail,
> and in the process fixed this as well, but for reasons beyond me he
> didn't think it was a bug and no patches got applied.
> 
> So even if you do think it's a bug, good luck getting it fixed ..

IMHO, the issue here is whether or not we should support Maildir-style
mailbox folders in /var/spool/mail/ or not, and whether or not we should
support the removal of /var/spool/mail.

If this may be done in procmail without "breaking" current policy, I would
be willing to do it.

Thanks.

-- 
 "c29a86b778ca5f2d78cb1803a58a7bc2" (a truly random sig)

Message #23 received at 46598-forwarded@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>

To: Philip Guenther <guenther@gac.edu>

Cc: 46598-forwarded@bugs.debian.org, Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>

Subject: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files (fwd)

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 13:08:05 +0200 (CET)

Hello.

I received this from the Debian Bug System.
[ Please keep the Cc: lines when replying ].

Maybe there should be a way to disable ordinary /var/spool/mail
checking in cases like this one.

Thanks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 4 Oct 1999 10:59:30 -0000
From: Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>
To: submit@bugs.debian.org
Subject: #46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Package: procmail
Version: 3.13.1-2
Severity: normal

I'm using qmail as MTA with mailboxes in home directories as `Mailbox'.
I've removed the whole /var/spool/mail directory.
In my .procmailrc I haven't got any line containing /var/spool/... or so.
But I got this message in my syslog after every mail :

Oct  4 12:56:26 oxygene qmail: 939034587.003341 delivery 2944: success: procmail:_Couldn't_create_"/var/spool/mail/lgb"/did_0+0+1/

This is not problem since procmail seems to work but it's very annoying.
What can be the problem ?

Thanx : Gabor Lenart

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux oxygene 2.2.12 #8 Mon Sep 20 22:58:18 CEST 1999 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages procmail depends on:
ii  debianutils     1.13           Miscellaneous utilities specific to Debian.
ii  libc6           2.1.2-5        GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone


-- 
 "2973d07e7ba202e991e97d1eebcffd95" (a truly random sig)

Message #24 received at 46598-forwarded@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Philip Guenther <guenther@gac.edu>

To: Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>

Cc: 46598-forwarded@bugs.debian.org, Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files (fwd)

Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 10:30:51 -0500

Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es> writes:
>Maybe there should be a way to disable ordinary /var/spool/mail
>checking in cases like this one.

They should rebuild procmail with MAILSPOOLHOME set to "/Mailbox" in
src/authenticate.c.  That way procmail can verify and possibly correct
the permissions on the mail file for the user, and then if and only if
they are okay will ORGMAIL and DEFAULT be set to point to the file.

Note that if the the default mailbox should be anything but a normal
mbox-style file then this won't work right.  (This will be fixed in 3.14,
along with maildir support.)


>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: 4 Oct 1999 10:59:30 -0000
>From: Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>
>To: submit@bugs.debian.org
>Subject: #46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files
>
>Package: procmail
>Version: 3.13.1-2
>Severity: normal
>
>I'm using qmail as MTA with mailboxes in home directories as `Mailbox'.
>I've removed the whole /var/spool/mail directory.
>In my .procmailrc I haven't got any line containing /var/spool/... or so.
>But I got this message in my syslog after every mail :
>
>Oct  4 12:56:26 oxygene qmail: 939034587.003341 delivery 2944: success: procma
il:_Couldn't_create_"/var/spool/mail/lgb"/did_0+0+1/


Philip Guenther

Message #29 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Donnie Roberts <donnier@gate.net>

To: 46598@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Gabor Lenart Z warrior <lgb@oxygene.terra.vein.hu>

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/* files

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 15:45:09 -0400 (EDT)

Package: procmail
Version: 3.15-1

I am having a similar problem. I am sporatically receiving mail in
/var/spool/mail/*, but my .procmailrc has a catch all rule to put
mail in $HOME/mail/general. It also seems like mail is sometimes put
in the wrong folder. I noticed this happening after I upgraded on
Monday.

.procmailrc:

MAILDIR=$HOME/mail
...rules...

# Catch all
:0
general

-- System Information
Debian Release: woody
Kernel Version: Linux lummi 2.2.17pre6 #1 Wed Jul 5 16:06:11 EDT 2000 i686 unknown

Versions of the packages procmail depends on:
ii  libc6          2.1.94-3       GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone

Message #34 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Norbert Veber <nveber@debian.org>

To: 46598@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Donnie Roberts <donnier@gate.net>

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/*

Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 11:58:27 -0500

Did your /home run out of disk space?

I too had mail delivered to /var/spool/mail when /home was full.  I
think this is very wrong, as the mail might as well be lost.  It took
several months until for no real reason I poked around in
/var/spool/mail, and found some 100 messages.

I since wrote a shell script that I run from cron that looks like this:
nveber@pyre[3146:~/bin]$ cat procmailcheck 
#!/bin/sh
if [ -s /var/spool/mail/nveber ] ; then
        echo "Procmail fucked up again!"
        ls -al /var/spool/mail/nveber
fi

This way I eventually get an email (unless its misdelivered) about the other
lost emails..

This is a slightly different bug than the original.  In this case the
DEFAULT variable is not being honored.  It should fail if it cant
deliver the message where its supposed to, and let the MTA queue it,
instead of saving it in random locations..

Thanks,

Norbert

Message #39 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: dean gaudet <dean-debian@arctic.org>

To: 46598@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/*

Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 19:58:33 -0700 (PDT)

fwiw, my /etc/procmailrc has:

ORGMAIL=$HOME/Mailbox
DEFAULT=$HOME/Mailbox

and i consider it a bug that procmail insists on querying and creating
/var/mail/$USER even though i've told it otherwise.  i've studied the
source code and it's pretty clear that /etc/procmailrc parsing occurs
later than this unnecessary futzing with /var/mail/$USER.

sure i can recompile from source, but that's kind of an unfortunate thing
to do.

-dean

Message #46 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Peter Ivancik" <P.Ivancik@pod.cvut.cz>

To: <46598@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/*

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:52:42 +0200

Hi,

Was this bug fixed ? It looks not (debian etch/lenny).

It's problem, because we use Maildir (postfix+procmail delivery and users 
are in ldap) and if for example user doesn't have Maildir directory (he 
delete it), or ldap get slow response for $HOME variable etc. mail is stored 
in /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME and is never moved in Maildir.

Thnx for information.

   Peter Ivancik 

Message #51 received at 46598@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michelle Konzack <linux4michelle@tamay-dogan.net>

To: Peter Ivancik <P.Ivancik@pod.cvut.cz>, 46598@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#46598: procmail: procmail wants to create /var/spool/mail/*

Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:49:02 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Am 2008-09-18 15:52:42, schrieb Peter Ivancik:
> Hi,
> 
> Was this bug fixed ? It looks not (debian etch/lenny).

This is NOT a Bug!

If you have setup procmail correctly, it  will  use  Maildirs.  However,
/var/mail/$LOGNAME is created as BACKUP IF delivery to $MAILDIR fails.

> It's problem, because we use Maildir (postfix+procmail delivery and users 
> are in ldap) and if for example user doesn't have Maildir directory (he 
> delete it), or ldap get slow response for $HOME variable etc. mail is 
> stored in /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME and is never moved in Maildir.

...and why not create a simple check for it?

----8<-----------------------------------------------------
MAILDIR=${HOME}/Maildir
DEFAULT=${MAILDIR}/

DUMMY_EXEC=`if [ ! -d ${MAILDIR}/tmp ] || [ ! -d ${MAILDIR}/new ] || [ ! -d ${MAILDIR}/cur ] ; then mkdir -p ${MAILDIR}/{tmp,new,cur} ; fi`

...
----8<-----------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Greetings and nice Day/Evening
    Michelle Konzack
    Systemadministrator
    24V Electronic Engineer
    Tamay Dogan Network
    Debian GNU/Linux Consultant


-- 
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