procmail: Couldn't create "/var/mail/test"

eantoranz · 09-27-2008, 04:50 PM

I have this problem with procmail.

If the spool file for a user is already created, I have no problem to send email to the user. However, if the file is not there already, procmail can't create it on its own.

Permissions for the spool directory:

Code:

drwxrwxr-x 2 root mail 4096 Sep 26 14:15 /var/spool/mail/

Now... why can't procmail create the spool file? I know that it's a permission problem... but how can I fix it? Is it OK if I just chmod g+s /usr/bin/procmail (it belongs to the mail group)?

unSpawn · 09-28-2008, 05:38 AM

Procmail isn't installed setuid-anything by default IIRC, so setting it shouldn't be the first workaround to look at. I could imagine a small, centrally run recipe checking if the user's spool got created before doing anything else, but wouldn't it be "better" to trigger file creation instead on creation of the account?

racracracrac · 09-28-2008, 08:54 PM

Very close!

Somehow your /var/mail directory lost its setguid. Overzealous security? Maybe.

chmod g+s /var/mail

Alternatively you can add everyone to the mail group, but then everyone can read everyone elses mail file!

eantoranz · 09-29-2008, 01:16 PM

OK, racra.. that will make new files created inside the directory keep the gid of "mail"... but I think that won't allow procmail to write new files in the directory if I remove the SGID from the executable. Am I wrong?