[bit.listserv.pmdf-l] PMDF and EXQUOTA

PAYNE@ITHACA (John Payne) (02/07/90)

Recently Larry Fahnoe wrote to the list:

>What happens to a message if PMDF cannot deliver it due to a user's disk
>quota being exceeded?  We are a BITNET site using JNET; LMD and the
>other JNET daemons run from an account that has EXQUOTA.  It is not too
>surprising to find users exceeding their quotas due to mail, and that
>because of this they are not able to COMPRESS their mail files.  An
>obvious solution is to remove EXQUOTA from the process running the LMD.
>My question is this though: what happens to the message?  Does it bounce
>and wreak havoc?  Does it end up in our bit bucket?  Will it queue until
>it can be delivered?  Given a few thousand users this could become a
>real headache.

I haven't seen any response to this on the list, but am eager to.  We
have way over a thousand undergraduates and unsophisticates here, and
users can exceed their quota by 2 or 3 times.

I haven't looked at the problem seriously, but I did notice that the
problem doesn't seem to be PMDF specific.  Under VMS 5.2, a process
with EXQUOTA (or even just SETPRV) can deliver mail to an over-stuffed
account via vanilla VMS Mail, where an unprivileged user gets a quota error.

The trouble with PMDF (I think) is that the batch jobs run (normally)
under the SYSTEM account, extending the "privilege" of delivering
limit-exceeding mail to normal users.

I'd appreciate thoughts by those more familiar with VMS Mail innards
and PMDF.  Thanks.


John Payne

Academic Systems Coordinator       payne@ithaca.bitnet
Academic Computing Services        payne%ithaca.bitnet@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 14850

FAHNOE@UWPLATT.EDU (Larry Fahnoe, (02/07/90)

John Payne writes for a response to my earlier posting regarding PMDF
and EXQUOTA:

One solution is to edit MASTER.COM in the section that services the
local channel and disable EXQUOTA:

$!  priv_list = f$setprv("SYSPRV, DETACH, BYPASS")        ! original
$   priv_list = f$setprv("NOALL, SYSPRV, DETACH, BYPASS") ! L Fahnoe

I found however that JNET was installing MAIL with EXQUOTA and after
getting rid of EXQUOTA on both the delivery mechanism and MAIL, things
end up in the local queue until the user gets the quota under control or
the bouncer deletes it after 12 days.

What I wish for though is a way to be able to inform the user that there
is mail waiting due to a quota problem...

--Larry

Larry Fahnoe                            University Computing
608/342-1697                            UW-Platteville
BITNET: FAHNOE@UWPLATT                  One University Plaza
Internet: FAHNOE@UWPLATT.EDU            Platteville, WI  53181