Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

5.8 /var/mail : User mailbox files

The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool files must take the form <username>. /var/mail may be a symbolic link to another directory.

User mailbox files in this location should be stored in the standard UNIX mailbox format.

START RATIONALE

The logical location for this directory was changed from /var/spool/mail in order to bring FHS in-line with nearly every UNIX implementation. This change is important for inter-operability since a single /var/mail is often shared between multiple hosts and multiple UNIX implementations (despite NFS locking issues).

It is important to note that there is no requirement to physically move the mail spool to this location. However, programs and header files should be changed to use /var/mail.

END RATIONALE

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Translated by troff2html v1.4 on 13 January 2001 by Daniel Quinlan