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Date:      Wed, 27 May 1998 12:36:32 -0400 (EDT)
From:      woods@zeus.leitch.com (Greg A. Woods)
To:        "Daniel O'Callaghan" <danny@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Using /var/tmp instead of /tmp for mail.local
Message-ID:  <199805271636.MAA23193@brain.zeus.leitch.com>
In-Reply-To: Daniel O'Callaghan's message of "Mon, May 25, 1998 22:41:15 -0700" regarding "Using /var/tmp instead of /tmp for mail.local" id <199805260541.WAA07243@freefall.freebsd.org>
References:  <199805260541.WAA07243@freefall.freebsd.org>

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[ On Mon, May 25, 1998 at 22:41:15 (-0700), Daniel O'Callaghan wrote: ]
> Subject: Using /var/tmp instead of /tmp for mail.local
>
> Would anyone object to the following change to pathnames.h
> in mail.local as proposed by Greg Lemis?
> This would reduce the risk of overflowing the root fs by large
> e-mails.

Depending on how filesystems are organized, it's possible this patch
would cause contention within the mail system (i.e. when /var/spool and
/var/tmp are the same filesystem).  Of course if the /var/tmp and
/var/mail are the same filesystem the contention is just moved down a
step.  All bets are off if the message is being delivered to multiple
mailboxes though, as /var/mail will be the most likely place you'll run
out of space!  ;-)

Anyone worried about overflowing their root filesystem because they
might receive a large e-mail really should learn more about filesystem
allocation, and the potential subsystem interactions and contentions
that can result.  And how to restrict the size of mail messages that the
mailer will accept....  ;-)

/tmp should always be a separate filesystem (and /var/tmp should be a
symlink to it, or itself a separate filesystem); or vice versa
(i.e. /tmp is a symlink pointing to /var/tmp and /var, or /var/tmp, is a
separate mount point).  Note that if you do the latter then you need a
/var/tmp directory on the root filesystem so that things won't
completely break in single user mode when /var/tmp (or /var) isn't
mounted.

Given what's said in hier(7), I think /tmp is the logical place for
mail.local to save the copy of the message.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 443-1734      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>

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