Public bug reported:
First of all, this isnt really a postfix bug, but as the Ubuntu
Bugtracking system is quite horrible, i was forced to choose a package.
If you look at /var/mail in Ubuntu, it is a real directoy.
If we look at FHS:
---8<---
/var/mail : User mailbox files (optional)
Purpose
The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool
files must take the form <username>. Note that /var/mail may be a
symbolic link to another directory.
User mailbox files in this location must be stored in the standard UNIX
mailbox format.
The logical location for this directory was changed from /var/spool/mail in
order to bring FHS in-line with nearly every UNIX implementation.
---8<---
So this directory exists for staying incompatible with other UNIX
Distributions and mostly is a symlink to /var/spool/mail as it contains
parts of the mail spool.
So /var/spool/mail is the "real" directory und /var/mail was created (as
optional) as an compatibility directory.
On Ubuntu (and seems like on Debian too), its the other way.
/var/spool/mail is just a fake symlink to /var/mail.
The /var/spool/mail should not be a symlink to an optional directory!
Spool-Files belong to /var/spool, not /var/mail and /var/spool/mail just
getting a symlink to that is just wrong.
/var/mail is the optional directory which exists for compatibility reason and
mostly is just a symlink
/var/spool/mail is the real thing!
---8<---
user@host:~$ file /var/spool/mail
/var/spool/mail: symbolic link to `../mail'
---8<---
thats just wrong!
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: postfix 2.9.3-2ubuntu2.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-25.38-generic 3.5.7.4
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-25-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Feb 27 16:18:35 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-29 (29 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.2)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: postfix
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
** Affects: postfix (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: apport-bug i386 quantal running-unity
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Server Team, which is subscribed to postfix in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1134461
Title:
/var/mail is real instead of symlink :: /var/spool/mail is symlink
instead of real
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