Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it updates the
virus definitions it sends a local email (known issue) which is where
“You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried the “mail” command which
pulls up all the messages then “d” (both no quotes) to delete them all
but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time ClamX
runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it updates
the virus definitions it sends a local email (known issue) which is
where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried the “mail” command
which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both no quotes) to delete
them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
Hmmm, I can’t find a mailbox file. Where is it located?
T.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time
ClamX runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it updates
the virus definitions it sends a local email (known issue) which is
where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried the “mail” command
which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both no quotes) to delete
them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
That’s strange – I just tried this by sending myself a mail message
on the command line. mail reported that I had a message, but when I
quit there was no mbox file in my home directory. I know I have seen
it before, maybe Leopard is different and puts it elsewhere.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 1:07 PM, Todd wrote:
Hmmm, I can’t find a mailbox file. Where is it located?
T.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time
ClamX runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it updates
the virus definitions it sends a local email (known issue) which
is where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried the “mail”
command which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both no quotes)
to delete them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
Aha. It’s in /var/mail. Type Shift-Command G in Finder, and enter /var/
mail to see this normally-hidden folder.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 1:07 PM, Todd wrote:
Hmmm, I can’t find a mailbox file. Where is it located?
T.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time
ClamX runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it updates
the virus definitions it sends a local email (known issue) which
is where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried the “mail”
command which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both no quotes)
to delete them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
On Mar 23, 2010, at 12:30 PM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
Aha. It’s in /var/mail. Type Shift-Command G in Finder, and enter /
var/mail to see this normally-hidden folder.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 1:07 PM, Todd wrote:
Hmmm, I can’t find a mailbox file. Where is it located?
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time
ClamX runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it
updates the virus definitions it sends a local email (known
issue) which is where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried
the “mail” command which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both
no quotes) to delete them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
Aha. It’s in /var/mail. Type Shift-Command G in Finder, and enter
/var/mail to see this normally-hidden folder.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 1:07 PM, Todd wrote:
Hmmm, I can’t find a mailbox file. Where is it located?
T.
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
You can always go out to your user folder and delete your mailbox
file. That’s harmless, and you will get a new one the next time
ClamX runs or you send yourself some mail on the command line.
Walter
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Previously I was running ClamX and apparently each time it
updates the virus definitions it sends a local email (known
issue) which is where “You have mail” is coming from. I’ve tried
the “mail” command which pulls up all the messages then “d” (both
no quotes) to delete them all but they’re still there. Ideas?
Last login: Tue Mar 23 09:46:38 on console
You have mail.
c-00-000-00-0:~ Home$
Firstly, the ‘mailx’ command is more user friendly than ‘mail’. Not
that either is considered friendly these days.
If you use ‘mail’ or ‘mailx’ and save one or more messages they will
be put in a ~/mbox file which can be read with ‘mailx -f ~/mbox’. The
/var/mail mail spool directory is for all users on the system, each
having their own mailbox in there. To remove emails using mailx:
$ mailx
d *
q
$
The ‘d *’ removes all messages. ‘q’ quits. If you exit with ‘x’
instead the mailbox is left unchanged - ie the messages are not
deleted. There’s lots more. For 15 years I used mailx as my only mail
reader other than Compuserve. I still use it today for sending emails
from scripts.
David
–
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
HP-UX specialist of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
email@hidden www.ivdcs.co.uk