[comp.unix.aix] system-wide mailbox on aix

looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) (04/13/91)

Does anyone know why there are two system-wide mailboxes on AIX?
They locate in /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER
Why is it neccessary to have two mailboxes? If /usr/mail/$USER is 
just a dupe of /usr/spool/mail/$USER, can I remove it altogther
to conserve disk space? Will removing it lead to any side effect?

Any insight will be appreciated.

-looi

wolf@grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr (Christophe Wolfhugel) (04/13/91)

In article <_S7ERCI_=@linac.fnal.gov> looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) writes:
>Does anyone know why there are two system-wide mailboxes on AIX?
>They locate in /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER

On some AIX (maybe all?) you can check that /usr/mail is linked to
/usr/spool/mail as indicated here:

lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     system   15 19 Mar 11:04 /usr/mail -> /usr/spool/mail

That means that /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER are the SAME file.

-- 
Christophe Wolfhugel (on irc: Zolf)  |  Email: wolf@grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr
INSA Lyon - Departement Informatique |  "Lapalisse au bordel: la duree de"
69621 Villeurbanne Cedex             |  "l'attente est fonction de la longueur"
France                               |  "de la queue."

looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) (04/14/91)

In article <1991Apr13.165851.11350@grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr> wolf@grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr (Christophe Wolfhugel) writes:
>In article <_S7ERCI_=@linac.fnal.gov> looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) writes:
>>Does anyone know why there are two system-wide mailboxes on AIX?
>>They locate in /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER
>
>On some AIX (maybe all?) you can check that /usr/mail is linked to
>/usr/spool/mail as indicated here:
>
>lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     system   15 19 Mar 11:04 /usr/mail -> /usr/spool/mail
>
>That means that /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER are the SAME file.
>
Any justification for doing this? The BSD I'm familiar with has only
one, that's /usr/spool/mail/$USER

shore@theory.tn.cornell.edu (Melinda Shore) (04/14/91)

In article <28DR_OAA@linac.fnal.gov> looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) writes:
[about symlinks between mail spool directories]
>>That means that /usr/spool/mail/$USER and /usr/mail/$USER are the SAME file.

>Any justification for doing this? The BSD I'm familiar with has only
>one, that's /usr/spool/mail/$USER

SysV mailers user /usr/mail.  Doing it this way prevented the AIX guys
from having to change some sendmail pathnames.
-- 
                    Software longa, hardware brevis
Melinda Shore - Cornell Information Technologies - shore@theory.tn.cornell.edu