fuat@cunixc.columbia.edu (Fuat C. Baran) (11/15/88)
Hello, I am not sure whether this is really a sendmail question, but since the problem happens to mail files, I thought maybe someone else reading this newsgroup may know the answer. I have my mail delivered to the standard spool directory, AND to a backup mail file via my .forward file: \username, /my/home/dir/subdir/filename This file is mode 4660. The suid bit MUST be on, and the execute bit MUST be off (that's what sendmail wants). This works fine. The problem is that approximately once a week, delivery to this file begins to fail, the reason being that the suid bit gets turned off. I do not do anything to the file's mode (I'm sure, not even an editor doing things behind my back), and nothing on the system touches this file (as far as I know). My temporary fix is a cron entry to set ths bit periodically, since people complain about bounce notices. This problem seems to happen to other people that use this method of having a backup mail file on our system. Has anyone seen this problem before, or have a suggestion as to what is causing the mode change? A bit about the environment: This is on a VAX running Ultrix 2.0, but with sendmail 5.54. My home directory is also NFS mounted on 3 Sun-4's with SunOS 4.0 (sendmail 5.58?), BUT /usr/lib/aliases entries forward my mail to the Vax which delivers it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. --Fuat -- INTERNET: fuat@columbia.edu U.S. MAIL: Columbia University BITNET: fuat@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu Center for Computing Activities USENET: ...!rutgers!columbia!cunixc!fuat 712 Watson Labs, 612 W115th St. PHONE: (212) 854-5128 New York, NY 10025