The Mail Manager

Managing the user's INBOX location

The user's INBOX holds incoming mail messages for that user. Use this option to place a user's inboxes in either the system spool directory or the user's home directories. Traditional UNIX mail systems placed all users inboxes in a fixed directory. This is inconvenient for large servers as it is often desirable to have mail inboxes located on separate disk drives and/or located in each user's home directory to concentrate all user data in a single directory on the disk drive of the administrator's choice.

To modify the INBOX:

Highlight the entry and press <Enter>.
This produces a ``Modify INBOX Location'' screen.
In the ``Users' INBOX location'' field, use the button to produce a pull down menu, and select one of the following location types:
- System Spool Directory
- User's Home Directory
- Custom Location
This option is reminiscent of the old MMDF folder location configuration. The custom location allows you to specify both the INBOX directory and the INBOX name. Note that it is mandatory to have an INBOX location entry. The greyed out values show what the settings would be in custom mode.
In the ``Folder Directory'' field, type in the directory to be used. If this field is left null then the user's home directory is used.
In the ``Folder Name'' field, type in the name to be used. If this field is null then the user's login name is used.
When you have entered the new INBOX location, click on OK to return to the main screen.

When you exit the Mail Manager and save changes, all future incoming messages will go to the new location specified.

NOTE: It is often better to use the user's home directories as there is more disk space available: the disk space available to /var/spool/mail is typically limited. The root filesystem should not be used to store server critical data.