GNU Info

(am-utils.info)Single-Host Mail Spool Directory

---

Next: Centralized Mail Spool Directory Prev: Background to Mail Delivery Up: Background to Mail Delivery

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Single-Host Mail Spool Directory
--------------------------------

   The most common method for mail delivery is for mail to be appended
to a mailbox file in a standard spool directory on the designated "mail
home" machine of the user. The greatest advantage of this method is
that it is the default method most vendors provide with their systems,
thus very little (if any) configuration is required on the SA's part.
All they need to set up are mail aliases directing mail to the host on
which the user's mailbox file is assigned.  (Otherwise, mail is
delivered locally, and users find mailboxes on many machines.)

   As users become more sophisticated, and aided by windowing systems,
they find themselves logging in on multiple hosts at once, performing
several tasks concurrently.  They ask to be able to read their mail on
any host on the network, not just the one designated as their "mail
home".