Where is root mail going?

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Fri Mar 9 17:37:51 UTC 2007


William Case wrote:
> Hi;
> 
> Thanks for the topic.  The time has come for me as a relative newbie to
> properly set up my root's system email.  I am using FC6, on a home
> network with two computers (one a Linux with 2 users and one a
> WindowsXP).  Some dumb questions follow:
> 
> On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 19:00 +1000, Michael Fleming wrote:
>> On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 10:53 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>> On an FC6 installation that is about two months old, I finally decided
>>> to route roots email to user. I open /etc/aliases and I see this:
>>>
>>> # Person who should get root's mail
>>> #root:          marc
>>   ^^^ Note the comment (#) mark. 
>>
> Should be 'root:     bill' --right?  (I am bill) 
> 
> 
>>> Who is marc, and why is he getting root's mail?
>> He isn't. The above example is commented, you can change "marc" to any
>> other local username, remove the hash mark and run "newaliases" to have
>> mail for root redirected to another user (which is one of the first
>> configuration steps an administrator should take)
>>
> 
> I use evolution for email, but don't want to get system mail mixed up
> with incoming emails.  How do I set up a special account in evolution?
> Or, can I set it up to use a separate reader like 'mutt'?  What is the
> usual way for root/users to view the system mail?  'bill' would want to
> read the system mail caused by both 'bill' and 'randy' (the second Linux
> user)?  Does WindowsXP generate system mail and should/could I see that
> as well.  The XP mail is on the second computer.
> 
> What is the usual filtering of system mail?  A lot of it seems to be
> cruft to me.
> 
> Any help or suggestions gratefully received. 
> 
>>>  Should I be worried
>>> that the machine is compromised?
>> It isn't, this is the standard Sendmail (and in Fedora other MTAs using
>> the alternatives system ie. Postfix/Exim) aliases file.
>>
> [snip]
>> Michael.
> 

I don't use Evolution if I can help it.  I use Thunderbird.

On my home system, my ISP won't allow any mail generated by the machines 
to be sent unless I really configure sendmail.  So I send the mail to 
the local machines to my user account "robin".  I then use Thunderbirds 
movemail feature to read the local /var/spool/mail/robin mailbox.  Now 
it is in Thunderbird under it's own settings.


-- 
Due to the move to M$ Exchange Server,
    anything that is a priority, please phone.
Robin Laing




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