Q: Whenever someone enables vacation mail on my RaQ, my maillog keeps filling up with error messages about forward file (forward /var/spool/mail/.forward.dns3: World writable directory, for example) being in a world-readable directory, but it's not the directory belonging to vacationing user. What can I do?
A: This started happening to RaQ4 owners after a Sun update earlier in 2004. I'm not sure which one, but it's easy to fix by changing the permissions on /var/spool/mail back to 0775.
In order to fix this, you'll need to be comfortable with using the command line shell on your RaQ4. Here's a step-by-step set of instructions.
SSH to your RaQ4 (or use telnet if you must) and log in as admin.
Type "su - root" and tap the return key at the command line prompt. You'll need to be the machine's root account. Most RaQs will have the admin password as the root account password as well.
Type "cd /var/spool", followed by a return to change to the directory containing the problematic directory.
Once you're in /var/spool, type "chmod 0775 followed by the return key to fix the permissions on this directory.
If you've successfully fixed the problem, typing "ls -l" and return should give you an entry similar to the following (your date will be different): drwxrwxr-x 2 root mail 3072 Nov 13 10:16 mail
Type "exit" and return to stop being root. Type "exit" and return again to logout as admin.
You're done. Your problem should now be solved.