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Date:      Sat, 1 Apr 2000 22:42:24 -0500
From:      Ben Williams <williamsl@home.com>
To:        "Crist J. Clark" <cjclark@home.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re[2]: symlinking /var/mail to /usr/mail
Message-ID:  <7946.000401@home.com>
In-Reply-To: <20000401222657.B29675@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>
References:  <20000401222657.B29675@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>

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Quoting Crist J. Clark                                Saturday, April 01, 2000
CJC> On Sat, Apr 01, 2000 at 10:03:47PM -0500, Ben Williams wrote:
>> Quoting Crist J. Clark                                Saturday, April 01, 2000
>> CJC> On Sat, Apr 01, 2000 at 07:08:23AM -0600, Chris Byrnes wrote:
>> >> I am running out of space on /var, so I'd like to remove /var/mail,
>> >> create /usr/mail, and create a symlink so /var/mail forwards to
>> >> /usr/mail.
>> >> 
>> >> I know how to do that and stuff, but I'm not sure what permissions /usr/mail
>> >> should have and who should own it.
>> >> 
>> >> Advice?
>> 
>> CJC> Well, I think giving /usr/mail the same permissions and ownership as
>> CJC> /var/mail would be a pretty safe way to go. In my case I would,
>> 
>> CJC>   # mkdir /usr/mail
>> CJC>   # chown root.mail /usr/mail
>> CJC>   # chmod 775 /usr/mail
>> CJC>   # kill `head -1 /var/run/sendmail.pid`
>> CJC>   # tar cf - -C /var/mail . | tar xf - -C /usr/mail
>> CJC>   # mv /var/mail /var/mail.old                      # just to be safe
>> CJC>   # ln -s usr/mail /var/mail
>> CJC>   # /usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -q30m
>> 
>> CJC> And I think that would do it. Remove /var/mail.old when you verify
>> CJC> everything got copied and is working fine.
>> 
>> 
>>    Would it be better to change this somewhat:
>> mkdir
>> ch(own/mod)
>> -- and now -stop- sendmail to avoid loosing data as tar runs        --
>> --(will -HUP kill sendmail or cause it to re-read its config files?)--

CJC> On a HUP, it does die and also reads the config file. The present
CJC> sendmail process dies and a new sendmail is spawned that reads the new
CJC> config files. That's why I sent sendmail a TERM in the above
CJC> example.

CJC> However, thinking about it more, sendmail _loves_ to fork off copies
CJC> of itself. After killing the parent sendmail as shown above, check to
CJC> make sure there are no children still about. Wait for them to finish
CJC> whatever they are doing before continuing.

>> mv
>> ln -s /usr/mail /var/mail # watch that first / ;-)

CJC> Yep. I saw that typo after I sent the mail. That first slash is
CJC> important.

>> restart sendmail

   So the default signal for kill is -TERM? Looking at the manpage I
see that it is. All this time I'd thought the default signal was HUP
and I've been fully expanding all my signal arguments.

--Ben Williams
mailto:received@email dot com




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