Re: [Exim] Vanishing emails

On Jun 2, 2004, at 14:30, Jefferson Allen wrote:
> So this tells me, we received it and it was successfully sent to
> user roger @ /var/mail/roger. But he has never received this email. Is
> there
> some place else I can look to see that it was picked up by user roger
> when
> they retrieved their mail from the server. Right now it makes no sense
> why
> this user does not have it in their inbox. Rules in Outlook have also
> been
> ruled out.

Since the person is using Outlook, I presume (s)he retreives mail by
way of the POP-3 or IMAP protocol. Look in the log generated by your
POP3 or IMAP server (typically /var/log/mail.log) for clues.

POP3 and imap are a bit different in this regard. With POP3, the
person retreives the message to their own computer, and from then on,
no forensics on the server side will be able to tell you what is going
on. With IMAP, the user is actually managing mails and mailboxes on
the server by way of their IMAP client; with appropriate logging
enabled in your IMAP server, you should be able to tell what is going
on.

That said, BSD mail spools (i.e. mailbox files in /var/mail) are not
the safest/best option for mail storage. Consider using something like
Cyrus (best, but a bit more difficult to setup and maintain) or
Courier. You will have to configure Exim to deliver mail accordingly.

-tor