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From: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
Message-Id: <199604101352.IAA12075@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
Subject: Re: /var/mail default permissions??
To: hdalog@zipnet.net
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 08:52:07 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: terry@lambert.org, current@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199604101200.IAA01416@hda.com> from "Peter Dufault" at Apr 10, 96 08:00:04 am
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> > % cat > /var/mail/peter
> > 
> 
> That was the end of Terry's message.
> 
> Did this totally confuse anyone elses mailer?  I see these two
> messages in elm:
> 
> >     1   Apr 10 Bite Me            (13)   Ha ha
> >     2   Apr 10 Terry Lambert      (41)   Re: /var/mail default permissions?? 
> 
> and have this in my in box:
> 
> > From dufault Wed Apr 10 07:34:25 1996
> > From: anon@anon (Bite Me)
> > Subject: Ha ha
> > Status: OR
> > 
> > Don't you wish you could do something about your mail...  give
> > Fred $5 and he'll unlock it for you.
> > 
> > 					-- Anon
> > 
> > ^D
> > % exit
> 
> which threw me for a loop a minute.  I don't think this is what
> Terry was showing us.

No, your local host most likely has something configured incorrectly.

Mail messages in /var/mail are typically separated by "From " lines
(From-SPACE as opposed to From-COLON).  Since it is potentially possible for
the data in a mail message to contain the pattern "^From ", mail.local
handles this:

     --%<--
     followed by a line beginning with the string ``From ''.  A line contain-
     ing the string ``From '', the sender's name and a time stamp is prepended
     to each delivered mail message.  A blank line is appended to each mes-
     sage.  A greater-than character (``>'') is prepended to any line in the
     message which could be mistaken for a ``From '' delimiter line.
     --%<--

Your local host is responsible for running a delivery agent that enforces
this policy.  If memory serves, one of the major offenders is Elm's
"filter", when abused in various fashions, such as appending the message
directly to /var/mail/${user}.  This is inadvisable in any case, and is
particularly hard to avoid because these configuration settings happen out
in userland.

The other case is when Sendmail itself is configured to use something
inappropriate as a local mailer, which is generally a sign that you should
buy your sysadmin a copy of the BAT book, and patiently explain that mail
systems are carefully constructed the way they are for a multitude of
reasons.  :-/

There are other, much less likely possibilities.

... Joe

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Greco - Systems Administrator			      jgreco@ns.sol.net
Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI			   414/546-7968