Seems to be where it is on some systems I have looked at (other than Linux, but including even older versions of other OS's), but not all.
For example, even older versions of IRIX: chem37 16% whoami current chem37 17% ls -l total 3 drwxrwxr-x 2 root mail 512 Dec 3 16:22 :saved -rw-rw---- 1 current mail 813 Jan 20 14:20 current chem37 18% pwd /usr/var/mail chem37 19% uname -a IRIX chem37 5.3 11091809 IP6 mips chem37 20% But not DEC UNIX... $ whoami current $ pwd /var/spool/mail $ ls -l current -rw------- 1 current daemon 0 Jan 20 07:41 current $ uname -a OSF1 plains V4.0 878 alpha $ and no, it's not a symbolic link here: $ pwd /var/spool $ ls -l total 304 drwxr-xr-x 4 root system 8192 Dec 29 09:43 cron/ drwxrwxr-x 2 uucp uucp 8192 Dec 29 18:14 locks/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 8192 Dec 29 1997 lpd/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 6 Jan 4 15:44 lpd.lock drwxrwxrwt 5 root mail 237568 Jan 20 14:30 mail/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 8192 Jan 20 14:30 mqueue/ drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon system 8192 Jan 18 00:30 popbulls/ drwxr-xr-x 104 root system 8192 Jan 4 15:44 printers/ drwxrwxr-x 10 uucp uucp 8192 Dec 29 10:06 uucp/ drwxrwxrwx 2 uucp uucp 8192 Dec 29 1997 uucppublic/ $ I do believe it's not a completely universial standard yet, at least not in practice.... But that doesn't mean it should be... (also don't expect me to know what I am talking about, just sharing observations...) -- "Robert W. Current" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - email http://www.current.nu - personal web site "Hey mister, turn it on, turn it up, and turn me loose." - Dwight Yoakam On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Daniel Quinlan wrote: > H Peter Anvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > I think changing it back would be a bad idea, because it breaks > > compatibility with other systems, which we *can't* change. > > Yes, many sites have several different types of Unix running (such as > Solaris), most of which use /var/mail. Pretty much only Linux uses > /var/spool/mail. > > The other side of the coin is that there is lots of source code that > has #ifdef linux and sets the default MAILPATH to /var/spool/mail. In > addition, most Linux packages (from places like Debian, SuSE, and Red > Hat) continue to use /var/spool/mail. > > At Transmeta, we actually have a symbolic link from /var/spool/mail to > a /var/mail mount point on our Linux systems. > > - Dan > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
