Mail error

[Bob Davis]

I'm trying to send mail to root on a 10.20 box and here's what I get:

sendmail -v mailadm < /etc/hosts
mailadm... Connecting to local...
/var/mail/mailadm.lock: Permission denied
mail: /var/mail/mailadm.lock not creatable after 10 tries
mailadm... Can't create output: Error 0
root... aliased to root
/dead.letter... cannot open: Permission denied
root... Connecting to local...
/var/mail/root.lock: Permission denied
mail: /var/mail/root.lock not creatable after 10 tries
root... Can't create output: Error 0

This also happens with other local users.

[Michael Elleby III_1]

Bob, just to take stab at this, it looks like you're trying to send a message to a user named mailadm instead of root, unless you have an alias setup that sends mail destined for mailadm to root..

Can you go into a little more detail?

Thanx.

Mike

[Bob Davis]

Sorry, I copied the wrong error. It is the same for mailadm or root. Any message intended for either root or mailadm fails with that error message and the mail file for that user remains at 0 bytes. It doesn't seem to be a permission problem as /var/tmp is writable.

[someone_4]

Hello
Here is what I posted on your other thread with the same issue:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xec958cc5e03fd6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html

MAIL: elm and mail programs unable to create lock files for users

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Document Type : EN
Date : 1998 Oct 22
Description : MAIL: elm and mail programs unable to create lock files for users
Document Id : A5387830
Search String : A5387830

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Problem Description

I am using version 8.86 of Sendmail and I am
experiencing a problem that occurs on six of
my servers.

elm seems to work correctly for root, but fails
for users with the following message:

elm can't create lock file, needs permission in /var/mail

When executing the mail command /usr/bin/mail/.lock
cannot be created after 10 tries.

What is causing this problem?

Configuration Info

Operating System - HP-UX
Version - 10.20
Hardware System - HP 9000
Series - K460

Solution

This problem has been known to occur when root has
the $MAIL variable set to /var/mail/root, but users
have it set to /usr/bin/mail.

$MAIL should not be set to the bin path. We recommend
you locate which profile is setting the $MAIL variable
to the incorrect path.

Here is the link

http://us-support3.external.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/sid=cd4f12ef01bd389981/screen=ckiSearchResults?mode=id&searchString=A5387830

Richard