Permission on /var/mail

Hello folks,

I have been following this tutorial [https://www.linode.com/docs/email/email … -and-mysql">https://www.linode.com/docs/email/email-with-postfix-dovecot-and-mysql] to set up the virtual mail server.

Step 6 under Dovecot states that the permission on /var/mail should be as follows:

drwxrwsr-x 2 root mail 4096 Mar  6 15:08 /var/mail

but mine comes to this drwxrwsrwt 3 vmail vmail 4096 Nov 15 09:05 /var/mail .

How do I trackback and confirm what I may have done wrong?

Thanks for help.

4 Replies

At least under Debian policy (11.6), /var/mail is a standard mail spool location, with correct permissions 2775 root:mail, which is violated by the approach in this tutorial (step 9 changes ownership, and modes are probably changed by one of the packages). This makes it a crappy tutorial.

Do yourself a huge favour and use iredmail.

@emestee:

At least under Debian policy (11.6), /var/mail is a standard mail spool location, with correct permissions 2775 root:mail, which is violated by the approach in this tutorial (step 9 changes ownership, and modes are probably changed by one of the packages). This makes it a crappy tutorial.

Do yourself a huge favour and use iredmail.

Hi emestee,

I had a look at Iredmail documentation, installation and configuration seem quite straightforward. However, the comparison page shows that only pro version would provide a capability to create email aliases, whitelisting, blacklisting, Spam/Virus Quarantining, Advanced Domain Management etc. The price tag of $500 per year is something I can't afford.

Cheers.

No, you can do all those things directly in the database or config files which is what you would be doing anyway in a custom setup. The difference is it will save you a lot of time on the installation, it will install stuff you don't know you need (e.g. amavisd, a policy server, master admin override passwords for mailbox migration and archiving, etc), and it will do so correctly. The $500 price tag is just if you want it all managed over the GUI. I haven't encountered something I wouldn't be able to do in principle w/o the paid UI, and I run dozens of mailservers.

@emestee:

No, you can do all those things directly in the database or config files which is what you would be doing anyway in a custom setup. The difference is it will save you a lot of time on the installation, it will install stuff you don't know you need (e.g. amavisd, a policy server, master admin override passwords for mailbox migration and archiving, etc), and it will do so correctly. The $500 price tag is just if you want it all managed over the GUI. I haven't encountered something I wouldn't be able to do in principle w/o the paid UI, and I run dozens of mailservers.

Thanks emestee. I will have a closer look.

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