Mailspool in Home Directory
Some users prefer to keep many messages in their mailspool
(/var/spool/mail/$username, also called INBOX in IMAP) for easy access.
The problem with this is that it leaves large files in /var/spool/mail.
Since that directory has to be a single partition and can't easily be
backed up if we expand it further, it is a better solution to allow the
mail user agent to copy the mail automatically into a user’s home
directory. Directions are below for popular clients.
Be aware, ~/mbox is subject to your quota. While the clients will not
delete the mail in /var/spool/mail if they encounter an error, it may
take some intervention to uncorrupt a ~/mbox if it ends up in a
truncated state. Feel free to
contact Operator if needed.
Also, as with /var/spool/mail mailboxes, the ~/mbox files have the same
locking conditions as /var/spool/mail. Take care to only use a single
client as a time to access mail, as this will reduce locking conflicts
and related issues.
Pine/IMAP/POP
First off, we
highly recommend POP users to convert to IMAP.
To automatically move mail to your home directory with c-client based
clients, do the following:
touch ~/mbox
chmod 600 ~/mbox
c-client will then automatically copy mail from /var/spool/mail
into your home directory when you exit Pine, or use IMAP or POP.
Mutt
Default Mutt settings should already be moving mail into ~/mbox.
However, with the following settings it will be done automatically
without prompting each session:
set mbox="~/mbox"
set move=yes
Elm
Elm’s default settings should ask upon exiting elm to move
all read mail to ~/mbox.
|
