[Techtalk] getting /var/mail/{whatever} forwarded externally

[Conor Daly]

On Sat, Jun 24, 2006 at 11:22:53AM +1000 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Mary Gardiner thought:
> 
> None of this information is intended to persuade you not to redirect it,
> by the way. Redirecting it to another place is a very standard setup --
> many sysadmins don't want to log in to each of their machines separately
> and read root mail there. Redirecting it means that you find out about
> it immediately rather than when you log in, and allows you to store all
> your mail in one place.

One thing that comes to mind is, what happens to /var/mail/root when you
use that redirect?  Does root no longer get the mail as well?  This could
be relevant if you end up having to log on at the console and want to see
root's mail.  In that case, you could consider using a /root/.forward file
to send _copies_ of root's messages rather than redirecting them.

It's also the case that you can configure individual programs to send
email to different people.  This can be handy for those that you don't
want to see.  Typically, it's the MAILTO setting in a program's config.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at cod.homelinux.org>
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/G/S/O d+(-) s:+ a+ C++(+) UL++++ US++ P>++ L+++>++++ E--- W++ !N
PS+ PE Y+ PGP? tv(-) b+++(+) G e+++(*) h-- r+++ z++++ 
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
http://www.geekcode.com/ http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/