[Pkg-exim4-users] defer (-21): appendfile: file or directory name ... is not absolute

[Andreas Metzler]

On 2009-04-15 Léon Dignòn <leon.dignon at gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
> MAILDIR_HOME_MAILDIR_LOCATION=/var/mail/$local_part

> *** This problem is solved, but I have another problem now! ***

> Now I get this error message:

> >  == contoso at beispiel.de R=local_user T=maildir_home defer (13): Permission denied: cannot create /var/mail/contoso

> But why?

Because the permission settings of the maildir_home transport are
customized for delivery to the users home directory. There the user
may generate new files/directories, which is why the transport is
simply run as the user. (No explicit setting, but simply because the
routers all have check_local_user set.)

OTOH on Debian /var/mail is usually 2775 root:mail (and you shouldn't
change to anything else, since mail handling aopplications on Debian
usually exspect this setting.) To be able to generate a new
file/directory in /var/mail the process therefore needs to run as
group mail.

[...]
> I added
> > user = mail
> > group = mail
> to the transport "maildir_home". I do not know if this is a good
> solution. Maybe anybody can give me a comment to that.

Undo the permission change of /var/mail and drop the user setting,
delivering as the local_user is fine.

> I am wondering if I missed some "best practice" or "Debian standard
> solution" for the whole /var/mail/username/ thing, since I cannot
> believe this configuration is rarely used.

I am not aware of this being a often used setup. Historically
/var/mail is used for mbox type mailboxes and programs expect these
there. Putting mdir stuff in a different location therefore is imho
natural. However my experience is very limited.

cu andreas
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