/var/spool/mail/root mail message

absalon · 07-04-2005, 03:40 AM

i recently received a message in my terminal emulator alerting me to new mail in /var/spool/mail/root

i had just used yum to install totem. the installation went fine and i got the alert right after. when i opened the file and read it i found several mentions of processes that had run on my system and past installations. is this likely to be a normal alert that i've missed in the past? there were some errors listed as well as several installations that went fine.

should i keep an eye on this file? is it likely to include vital information? from looking at it i get the impression that it's more of a log than a message.

here's the context and the alert i noticed:

Code:

Running test transaction:
Test transaction complete, Success!
totem 100 % done 1/2
mozilla-totem 100 % done 2/2
Installed:  mozilla-totem 0.99.15.1-1.1.fc2.dag.i386
Dep Installed:  totem 0.99.15.1-1.1.fc2.dag.i386
Transaction(s) Complete
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root

any enlightenment will be very appreciated.

WhatsHisName · 07-04-2005, 09:08 PM

It's not an error message. It's just telling you that root has unread mail.

And yes, it is worth looking at the root mail on a regular basis, especially the “LogWatch”, which is a synopsis of the daily activities.

If you log in as the root user, just set up a mail account for root@localhost.localdomain in Evolution and read the root mail through Evolution.