I've got Mail.

fnguy4545 · 01-23-2012, 12:14 PM

Now what? When I login as root I'm warmly reminded that I have mail.

OK, I'll bite... where am I supposed to look and take action?

T3RM1NVT0R · 01-23-2012, 12:20 PM

Hi fnguy4545,

Welcome to LQ!!!

Could you let us know the distribution you are running on?

fnguy4545 · 01-23-2012, 12:44 PM

RHEL./ But I've seen this in others too... just been a long time and I can't remember what to do.

TobiSGD · 01-23-2012, 12:53 PM

You will find the mail in text files in /var/mail, one file for any user that has got mail.

T3RM1NVT0R · 01-23-2012, 12:54 PM

Alright. Then you can check under /var/mail/root if you are logging in as root. If you are logging in as some other user then check in the same path but for that user file. Say /var/mail/<username>.

You can read the email by:

Code:

cat /var/mail/<username>

You can check using the same command on other distribution as well.

Nylex · 01-23-2012, 02:50 PM

You can also use the command "mail" (or "mailx"; one may be a symbolic link to the other) to read the messages. Read the man page (i.e. "man mail") for info on how to use it.

fnguy4545 · 01-24-2012, 10:38 AM

Some great answers. But why is it showing up: in other words, what is creating mail....

TobiSGD · 01-24-2012, 10:43 AM

They come from your system. Sometimes you will get mail when you update installed software to inform you that something had changed, some distros will send you a mail to inform you about something when you have them fresh installed, sometimes the developers just want greet or thank you for using their software.

fnguy4545 · 01-24-2012, 11:13 AM

This noob appreciates the help! Thanks.