[opensuse] How to get system mail delivered to user?

Bob Williams

1 Oct 2012 1 Oct '12

19:21

Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management. :~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel? Bob -- Bob Williams System: Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop Distro: openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.5 (4.8.5) "release 2" Uptime: 18:00pm up 5 days 23:53, 5 users, load average: 0.27, 0.12, 0.15 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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Malcolm

1 Oct 1 Oct

19:49

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...

Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

-- Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) Kernel 3.4.6-2.10-desktop up 2:48, 3 users, load average: 0.12, 0.35, 0.35 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Bob Williams

20:07

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...

On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm, Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option? Bob -- Bob Williams System: Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop Distro: openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.5 (4.8.5) "release 2" Uptime: 18:00pm up 5 days 23:53, 5 users, load average: 0.27, 0.12, 0.15 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Malcolm

20:25

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:07:15 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...

On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm,

Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option?

Bob

Hi Bob Hmmm it adds it to /etc/aliases by the looks.... which should also work... (needs to change old habits) -- Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) Kernel 3.4.6-2.10-desktop up 3:22, 3 users, load average: 0.61, 0.62, 0.47 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

2 Oct 2 Oct

06:03

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

Malcolm wrote:

...

On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:07:15 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm,

Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option?

Bob

Hi Bob Hmmm it adds it to /etc/aliases by the looks.... which should also work... (needs to change old habits)

Bob, check if /etc/aliases contains a line like this: root bob, \root Also check the dates of /etc/aliases and /etc/aliases.db, the latter should be newer. If those are all fine, we'll need to look at your mail log and see what happens to a mail to root. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (10.9°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Bob Williams

06:56

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On 02/10/12 07:03, Per Jessen wrote:

...

Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:07:15 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm,

Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option?

Bob

Hi Bob Hmmm it adds it to /etc/aliases by the looks.... which should also work... (needs to change old habits)

User bob is now receiving system mail :)

Bob, check if /etc/aliases contains a line like this:

root bob, \root

It does

...

Also check the dates of /etc/aliases and /etc/aliases.db, the latter should be newer.

It is

...

If those are all fine, we'll need to look at your mail log and see what happens to a mail to root.

What are we looking for? There are some lines preceding the changes suggested by Malcolm which warn that /etc/aliases.db is older than /etc/aliases Bob -- Bob Williams System: Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop Distro: openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.5 (4.8.5) "release 2" Uptime: 06:00am up 6 days 11:53, 5 users, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.05 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

07:11

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

Bob Williams wrote:

...

On 02/10/12 07:03, Per Jessen wrote:

...
Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:07:15 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

:~> mail No mail for bob :~> su - Password: :~# mail Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new

Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel?

Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm,

Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option?

Bob

Hi Bob Hmmm it adds it to /etc/aliases by the looks.... which should also work... (needs to change old habits)

User bob is now receiving system mail :)

Bob, check if /etc/aliases contains a line like this:

root bob, \root

It does

...
Also check the dates of /etc/aliases and /etc/aliases.db, the latter should be newer.

It is

...
If those are all fine, we'll need to look at your mail log and see what happens to a mail to root.

What are we looking for?

There are some lines preceding the changes suggested by Malcolm which warn that /etc/aliases.db is older than /etc/aliases

Okay, that means that "newaliases" or "postmap /etc/aliases" wasn't run when /etc/aliases was changed. Let's check your /etc/postfix/main.cf to make sure "alias_maps" does in fact point to /etc/aliases. Just grep for alias_maps. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (11.9°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Bob Williams

07:29

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On 02/10/12 08:11, Per Jessen wrote:

...

Bob Williams wrote:

...
On 02/10/12 07:03, Per Jessen wrote:

...
Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:07:15 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

...
On 01/10/12 20:49, Malcolm wrote:

...
On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:21:10 +0100 Bob Williams wrote:

> Once upon a time, in the days of oS 12.1 and earlier, I used to > get system mail delivered to me. This seems to have stopped since > moving to 12.2, in spite of the fact that my user has the > 'Receive System Mail' option checked in YaST > Security and Users >> User and Group Management. > > :~> mail > No mail for bob > :~> su - > Password: > :~# mail > Heirloom mailx version 12.5 7/5/10. Type ? for help. > "/var/spool/mail/root": 17 messages 17 new > > Is there anything else I need to do? Add myself to :wheel? > > Bob Hi Edit the file /etc/postfix/aliases there is a section called 'root' add your user name, probably needs un-rem as well ;) save/quit then run newaliases command.

Malcolm,

Many thanks. Presumably YaST should have done that when I checked the 'Receive System Mail' option?

Bob

Hi Bob Hmmm it adds it to /etc/aliases by the looks.... which should also work... (needs to change old habits)

User bob is now receiving system mail :)

Bob, check if /etc/aliases contains a line like this:

root bob, \root

It does

...
Also check the dates of /etc/aliases and /etc/aliases.db, the latter should be newer.

It is

...
If those are all fine, we'll need to look at your mail log and see what happens to a mail to root.

What are we looking for?

There are some lines preceding the changes suggested by Malcolm which warn that /etc/aliases.db is older than /etc/aliases

Okay, that means that "newaliases" or "postmap /etc/aliases" wasn't run when /etc/aliases was changed.

Let's check your /etc/postfix/main.cf to make sure "alias_maps" does in fact point to /etc/aliases. Just grep for alias_maps.

:~> grep alias_maps /etc/postfix/main.cf # /etc/passwd, /etc/aliases, or the $virtual_alias_maps files. #local_recipient_maps = unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps #local_recipient_maps = proxy:unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps # The alias_maps parameter specifies the list of alias databases used #alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, nis:mail.aliases #alias_maps = netinfo:/aliases # configuration parameter, because alias_maps (see above) may specify alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual Bob -- Bob Williams System: Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop Distro: openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.5 (4.8.5) "release 2" Uptime: 06:00am up 6 days 11:53, 5 users, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.05 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

07:53

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

Bob Williams wrote:

...

...
:~> grep alias_maps /etc/postfix/main.cf # /etc/passwd, /etc/aliases, or the $virtual_alias_maps files. #local_recipient_maps = unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps #local_recipient_maps = proxy:unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps # The alias_maps parameter specifies the list of alias databases used #alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, nis:mail.aliases #alias_maps = netinfo:/aliases # configuration parameter, because alias_maps (see above) may specify alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

Okay, looks good. Yet it still doesn't work? To test, you can send root a mail: "mail root" (. to finish) -- Per Jessen, Zürich (12.8°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Bob Williams

08:03

New subject: [opensuse] Re: How to get system mail delivered to user?

On 02/10/12 08:53, Per Jessen wrote:

...

Bob Williams wrote:

...
...
:~> grep alias_maps /etc/postfix/main.cf # /etc/passwd, /etc/aliases, or the $virtual_alias_maps files. #local_recipient_maps = unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps #local_recipient_maps = proxy:unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps # The alias_maps parameter specifies the list of alias databases used #alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, nis:mail.aliases #alias_maps = netinfo:/aliases # configuration parameter, because alias_maps (see above) may specify alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

Okay, looks good. Yet it still doesn't work?

To test, you can send root a mail:

"mail root" (. to finish)

Success :) Thank you for your advice and help. Bob -- Bob Williams System: Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop Distro: openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.5 (4.8.5) "release 2" Uptime: 06:00am up 6 days 11:53, 5 users, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.05 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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Bob Williams
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