Permissions on /var/mail directory

[Lowell Gilbert]

Gerard Seibert <gerard at seibercom.net> writes:

> FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p8
> postfix-current-2.4.20060903,3
> dovecot-1.0.r7
>
> I just did a buildworld along with a new kernel this morning. While doing 
> the installworld, I noticed an error message displayed regarding 
> the /var/mail directory. I have the directory set to: 1777 so that dovecot 
> can assess it. The installworld process reset the permissions to 0775 which 
> were not sufficient for Dovecot.
>
> The dovecot.log file had over a hundred entries similar to this:
>
> deliver(gerard): Error: 
> open(/var/mail/.temp.scorpio.seibercom.net.1123.cd38cd4d82e1368f) failed: 
> Permission denied
> deliver(gerard): Error: file_lock_dotlock() failed with mbox 
> file /var/mail/gerard: Permission denied
>
> Obviously the /var/log/maillog had similar fail warnings.
>
> By changing the permission to 1777 on the /var/mail directory and running 
> postsuper -r ALL, I was able to get the mail delivered. This is the second 
> time this has happened. The last time I rebuild world I experienced the 
> same phenomena. Why does build world insist on changing the directory 
> permissions and is there a way I can prevent it from doing so?
>
> What I am trying to determine is if I really should have those settings on 
> the directory, or if I have something configured wrong in either postfix or 
> dovecot.

Those permissions are awfully lenient, but if you've got a single-user
machine, I suppose you could live with it.