Using PINE to read root mail

I just installed pine in my FC4 system. When I was younger it was the main application to read the messages....and since I access my system through runlevel 3....are there any security concerns regarding pine??? I use it to check my system's daily logs....

ThnX

If you're using sendmail, you can add an entry to /etc/mail/aliases (and rebuild the aliases database with newaliases) to deliver mail for root to an ordinary user so you don't need to worry about this. For example:

root: steve

Pine is a good product, but you shouldn't have to be root just to read mail.

Originally Posted by gilead If you're using sendmail, you can add an entry to /etc/mail/aliases (and rebuild the aliases database with newaliases) to deliver mail for root to an ordinary user so you don't need to worry about this. For example: root: steve Pine is a good product, but you shouldn't have to be root just to read mail.

is there a way to set this up, and then flush all the mail spooled up for a user to that alias?

Originally Posted by gilead Pine is a good product, but you shouldn't have to be root just to read mail.

Thnx...I disabled root SSH access...so I login to the system as an ordinary user and then becomes a root by means of su...I'm afraid if I delivered the mail to a different user and that user was hacked then they will even see the root mail....sorry if this does not add up...i'm a n00b who recently started to manage a Linux box for learning purposes....

You could use the following (where username is the name of an account on the box), but make sure you use the 2 greater than symbols to append since using just one will overwrite the file:

cat /var/spool/mail/root >> /var/spool/mail/username

I'd check the file /var/spool/mail/username afterwards though. Sometimes you see something like the following in an otherwise empty mailbox:

From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Feb 14 10:33:32 2006
Date: 14 Feb 2006 10:33:32 +1000
From: Mail System Internal Data <MAILER-DAEMON@host.domain.au>
Subject: DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA
Message-ID: <1139877212@host.domain.au>
X-IMAP: 1139283039 0000000005
Status: RO

This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not
a real message.  It is created automatically by the mail system software.
If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created
with the data reset to initial values.

piforever, I take your point that there's a risk of a user account being compromised and it is common to SSH in and su to perform admin tasks. My assumption was that you were su'ing to root purely to read your mail which would be overkill.

The rule of thumb is that the root account should be used as little as possible. The exceptions that everyone makes to this rule depend on the risk involved in their own situation - and my lunch break isn't long enough to open that particular debate