The original question:
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I have seen several messages from people having this same problem, but I
can't find someone who sent a solution to it.
We have an alpha running DU v4.0D + patchset 3. We are having a problem
using dtmail. The user get's an error such as:
"Cannot set owner of temporary mailbox file.
Temporary Mailbox file: /usr/spool/mail/joe tmp.379774fa
Owner uid requested: 1333
Reason: Not owner"
The /var/spool/mail directory is nfs mounted from another machine.
No other mailers have this problem however.
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I had several replies which suggested I set the group of /var/spool/mail
to the mail group. I did this and dtmail now works.
I also got a reply from Dr. Thomas P. Blinn saying this was
probably a dtmail bug.
All messages are included below. Thanks for the quick help!
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>From tpb_at_doctor.zk3.dec.com Fri Jul 23 16:33:21 1999
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 99 11:32:40 -0400
From: "Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-884-0646" <tpb_at_doctor.zk3.dec.com>
To: Valerie Caro <valerie_at_cs.umass.edu>
Subject: Re: dtmail problem in DUv4.0D
Probably a dtmail bug. I would be genuinely surprised if we ever tested the
use of dtmail with the mail spool NFS mounted. In fact, we might even say it
is NOT supported.
Tom
Dr. Thomas P. Blinn + UNIX Software Group + Compaq Computer Corporation
110 Spit Brook Road, MS ZKO3-2/W17 Nashua, New Hampshire 03062-2698
Technology Partnership Engineering Phone: (603) 884-0646
Internet: tpb_at_zk3.dec.com Digital's Easynet: alpha::tpb
ACM Member: tpblinn_at_acm.org PC_at_Home: tom_at_felines.mv.net
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>From shirts_at_zeeman.lmsal.com Fri Jul 23 16:34:52 1999
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:36:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Shirts <shirts_at_zeeman.lmsal.com>
To: Valerie Caro <valerie_at_cs.umass.edu>
Cc: Phil Shirts <shirts_at_zeeman.lmsal.com>
Subject: Re: dtmail problem in DUv4.0D
Hi,
...I believe we had this problem before.
The following is an excerpt from an e-mail
I wrote describing my understanding of this
problem, and the fix (the first one,
described below, worked) that I implemented.
>The problem with dtmail arises because
>Digital Unix implements the 'chown' command
>differently than the Sun Solaris operating system
>does, and Sun Microsystems wrote the dtmail software.
>
>Apparently, the 'workaround' (no solution)
>is to change the group ownership of the file
>/var/spool/mail to be 'mail'.
>
>I have done this:
> prompt> pwd
> /var/spool
> prompt> ls -la
> drwxrwxrwt 2 root mail 8192 Jun 10 06:23 mail
>A second 'workaround' is to change the group ownership of
>the file /var/spool/mail/specific_user to the same group
>ownership (whatever it is) as the file /var/spool/mail.
Best wishes,
Phil
Phil Shirts, Software Engineer, L941/252, Lockheed-Martin ATC,
3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304-1191
650/354-5936 FAX 650/424-3994 shirts_at_lmsal.com
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>From larry_at_cs.wsc.ma.edu Fri Jul 23 16:34:44 1999
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 11:57:12 -0400
From: Larry Griffith <larry_at_cs.wsc.ma.edu>
To: Valerie Caro <valerie_at_cs.umass.edu>
Subject: Re: dtmail problem in DUv4.0D
Dear Valerie,
A wild guess (we don't use dtmail much and our mail spool isn't
NFS-distributed): it looks like dtmail is trying to write a lock file.
The protection on dtmail (at least on my machine) is:
5578 944 -r-xr-sr-x 1 bin mail 966656 Nov 12 1998 /usr/dt/bin/dtmail
Since dtmail is setguid, perhaps the group of the mailbox must be
"mail" and isn't or NFS isn't honoring the setguid status of dtmail?
Larry
============================================================================
Larry Griffith Dept. of Computer & Info Science
larry_at_cs.wsc.ma.edu Westfield State College
(413) 572-5294 Westfield, MA 01086 USA
PGP public key available at:
http://cs.wsc.ma.edu/dcis/griffith.html
============================================================================
---
Valerie Caro Computer Science Computing Facility,
valerie_at_cs.umass.edu LGRC Room A313,
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Received on Fri Jul 23 1999 - 20:37:58 NZST