On Fri, 11 Aug 2000, Malcolm Beattie wrote:
> Incoming mail from external sources gets spooled (to /var/spool/exim
> in Exim's case) while the MTA decides what to do with it and then
> the mail it delivers locally gets spooled (to /var/spool/mail say)
> for the MUAs to pick up. They're both spools as far as I can see.
Except that some MUAs don't pick them up. They leave them there, in the
mailbox, for ever. (At least, that's the way too many of our users
configure their MUAs to behave.)
However, arguing about this is fruitless. People use whatever words they
want to use. I shall just have to remember to be on my guard when trying
to interpret the word "spool" in future. "Mail spool" is particularly
unfortunate, because it could mean either of the two things.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
