Subject: Unable to lock mailbox: Permission denied
To: None <netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Brian Stark <bstark@siemens-psc.com>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 02/22/1998 15:47:15
All,

I have recently upgraded from 1.2.1/i386 to 1.3/i386 and each time I try to
delete mail using the mail program I get the message:

  "Unable to lock mailbox: Permission denied"

There appears to be some new locking support in mail that makes use of 
the flock() function (see mail source file quit.c). I suspect all that I 
need to do is change the permissions on /var/mail "1777", but before I do 
that, can someone tell me if this is the correct thing to do? (Have I 
overlooked something else?) 

Below is the output from the script command showing what I am trying to 
do on my system, along with the current (default 1.3) settings for /var,
/var/mail, and /var/mail/bstark.

Script started on Sun Feb 22 15:14:57 1998
callisto:bstark$ mail
Mail version 8.1 6/6/93.  Type ? for help.
"/var/mail/bstark": 1 message
>   1 bstark                Sun Feb 22 00:39 569/12784 ""
& d 1
& q
Unable to lock mailbox: Permission denied
callisto:bstark$ ls -ld /var
drwxr-xr-x  19 root  wheel  512 Dec 30 11:34 /var
callisto:bstark$ ls -l /var/mail
drwxr-xr-t  2 root  wheel  512 Feb 22 00:40 /var/mail
callisto:bstark$ ls -l /var/mail/bstark
-rw-------  1 bstark  users  12784 Feb 22 00:44 /var/mail/bstark
callisto:bstark$ ^D

Script done on Sun Feb 22 15:15:39 1998

The permissions on these directories and the file are the same as on my 
1.2/i386 system, if that matters...

Thanks,

Brian

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