/var/mail is real instead of symlink :: /var/spool/mail is symlink instead of real

Bug #1134461 reported by Vamp898
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
base-files (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

First of all, this isnt really a postfix bug, but as the Ubuntu Bugtracking system is quite horrible, i was forced to choose a package.

If you look at /var/mail in Ubuntu, it is a real directoy.

If we look at FHS:

---8<---
/var/mail : User mailbox files (optional)
Purpose

The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool files must take the form <username>. Note that /var/mail may be a symbolic link to another directory.

User mailbox files in this location must be stored in the standard UNIX mailbox format.

The logical location for this directory was changed from /var/spool/mail in order to bring FHS in-line with nearly every UNIX implementation.
---8<---

So this directory exists for staying incompatible with other UNIX Distributions and mostly is a symlink to /var/spool/mail as it contains parts of the mail spool.

So /var/spool/mail is the "real" directory und /var/mail was created (as optional) as an compatibility directory.

On Ubuntu (and seems like on Debian too), its the other way.

/var/spool/mail is just a fake symlink to /var/mail.

The /var/spool/mail should not be a symlink to an optional directory! Spool-Files belong to /var/spool, not /var/mail and /var/spool/mail just getting a symlink to that is just wrong.

/var/mail is the optional directory which exists for compatibility reason and mostly is just a symlink
/var/spool/mail is the real thing!

---8<---
user@host:~$ file /var/spool/mail
/var/spool/mail: symbolic link to `../mail'
---8<---

thats just wrong!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: postfix 2.9.3-2ubuntu2.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-25.38-generic 3.5.7.4
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-25-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Feb 27 16:18:35 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-29 (29 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.2)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: postfix
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Vamp898 (vamp898-ignaz) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Vamp898 (vamp898-ignaz) wrote :

I meant for sure "staying compatible with other UNIX Distributions" not "incompatible" ;)

Revision history for this message
Scott Kitterman (kitterman) wrote : Re: [Bug 1134461] Re: /var/mail is real instead of symlink :: /var/spool/mail is symlink instead of real

This is the kind of thing we are unlikely to deviate from Debian on, so it is
probably a better use of your time to figure out how to engage Debian on this
issue.

Revision history for this message
Robie Basak (racb) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

The /var/mail directory and /var/spool/mail symlink are created and managed by the base-files package, so this bug belongs there.

affects: postfix (Ubuntu) → base-files (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

There is no bug here. The FHS-mandated location is the real directory, which is the preferred implementation and done by design. /var/spool/mail is *not* listed in the FHS, only /var/mail is.

> The /var/spool/mail should not be a symlink to an optional directory!

You have misunderstood the meaning of "optional" in the FHS. It is optional to *have* a directory for mail spools. It is *not* optional to use /var/mail as the location for those mail spools if present.

Closing this report as invalid.

Changed in base-files (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
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