sudo anomaly

[Steven Friedrich]

On Sunday 26 September 2010 11:21:50 pm you wrote:
> > From FreeBSD at insightbb.com  Sun Sep 26 18:14:09 2010
> > From: Steven Friedrich <FreeBSD at insightbb.com>
> > To: Robert Bonomi <bonomi at mail.r-bonomi.com>
> > Subject: Re: sudo anomaly
> > Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:16:00 -0400
> > 
> > On Sunday 26 September 2010 2:38:06 pm you wrote:
> > > > From owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org  Sun Sep 26 11:46:43 2010
> > > > From: Steven Friedrich <FreeBSD at insightbb.com>
> > > > To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > > Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:47:29 -0400
> > > > Subject: sudo anomaly
> > > > 
> > > > I have a userID, admin, that I add to my systems to use when I
> > > > perform system admin functions.  I also use this ID when using
> > > > X-windows, never starting X as root user.
> > > > 
> > > > So I needed to check my mail for daily run outputs and so I tried to
> > > > use su then mail, but I got admin's mail. So I exited su, and tried
> > > > sudo mail. I got root's mailbox nd I deleted all but two emails.
> > > > When I q(uit) mail, it said it saved 2 messages in mbox. But when I
> > > > try to go back in it says I don't have any mail. There is no root
> > > > directory in /var/mail.
> > > 
> > > All that is correct.
> > > 
> > > > Did sudo lose my mbox?
> > > 
> > > Nope.  _you_ did.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > The good news is that you merely misplaced it  -- it _is_ were it's
> > > always been, you're just looking in the wrong place for it.`
> > > 
> > > 'mbox' != 'incoming mailbox'
> > > 
> > > > Can anyone verify this anomaly?
> > > 
> > > no anomaly.  simple *USER* error.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Look in root's _HOME_DIRECTORY_.  You'll find a file called 'mbox'
> > > =there=.
> > > 
> > > That's where 'already read' mail is saved.
> > > 
> > > When logged in as root, use 'mail -f mbox'  to see your old mail.
> > > 
> > > BTW, if you 'su root' and _then_ set evnrionment variable 'USER' to
> > > 'root', mail(1) _will_ fetch root's mail.
> > 
> > Thanks. I used mail under unix eons ago, and I don't remember ever having
> > to use a switch to get saved mail, but perhaps I've simply forgotten. I
> > use KMail and Thunderbird (under Winblows), but I needed to check daily
> > output scripts...
> 
> did you use 'su root' or 'su - root'?  the '-'  makes a humongous
> difference.

Thanks, I had forgotten about that...

-- 
System Name:   laptop2.StevenFriedrich.org
Hardware:      2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 (HTT) with 2 GB memory
OS version:    FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE i386 (6.9 MB kernel)
manager(s):    kde4-4.5.1 
X windows:     xorg-7.5    X.Org X Server 1.7.5