On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Tony Earnshaw wrote:
> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 19:05:06 +0200
> From: Tony Earnshaw <tony@???>
> To: Philip Hazel <ph10@???>, exim-users@???
> Subject: Re: [EXIM] lock file
>
> Philip Hazel wrote:
>
> > > > You should set there whatever is standard on your operating system. Some
> > > > operating systems call it /var/spool/mail. You normally need to set the
> > > > "sticky bit" (the "t" bit) on shared mail directories like this. We have
>
> > > > drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 212992 Apr 27 15:16 /var/mail/
>
> > > Just as a point of interest, why do you set /var/mail as world-writable?
> > > I'm sure our version of Cops would yuk at this, ours is 1770 and all
> > > works perfectly, alway has.
>
> > Presumably you run local deliveries under some specific mail group? For
> > systems that do not, the alternative is "world writeable, sticky bit
> > set". Just like /tmp, in fact.
>
> Exim runs under UID Exim and /var/mail is a symlink to /usr/spool/mail,
> owner Exim and group other (which is our normal user group). Cops would
> yuk about /var/mail being world writeable because in theory anyone could
> create or mv mail files. In fact, as Tony I can both touch and rm files
> that I've created in /var/mail.
Yes, but only files that YOU own. As long as the sticky bit is set,
you can't do anything to files that you don't own.