CentOS - Dec 2013 - Why I get this message " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root " ?

Hi, 

Why I get this message  " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root " 
in CentOs?

My queries are the following -
1.  Why this is generated ?
2. How to disable this ?
3. Is this system generated ?
4. Is this message gain any importance ?



Thanks,
Norah Jones

On Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:45:26 +0000
Norah Jones <nh.jones01 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> Why I get this message  " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
> "   in CentOs?
> 
> My queries are the following -
> 1.  Why this is generated ?
> 2. How to disable this ?
> 3. Is this system generated ?
> 4. Is this message gain any importance ?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Norah Jones
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Hi,

Basically, this is just a "You've got mail" notification.

Most likely these are system generated logs or errors being mailed to
root.

When logged into root type "mail" to see them.

Importance wise, it depends on what you perceive as important.

I myself like to know what is going on with my system so I leave them
on, while others do not.

Disabling them would involve either, disabling postfix all together (or
any other mailserver), this would prevent all system mail. 

Or, if you are using this as an email server, disabling other things such as
logwatch, and any other script which may mail root, 

Lastly another option is creating a dumby user for all mail directed at
root to go by setting up aliases in /etc/aliases (Basically at end:
root: dumbyuser) and then running newaliases.

Hope this helps :-).

Regards,
Jake Shipton (JakeMS)
GPG Key: 0xE3C31D8F
GPG Fingerprint: 7515 CC63 19BD 06F9 400A DE8A 1D0B A5CF E3C3 1D8F

On 2013-12-19, Norah Jones <nh.jones01 at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Why I get this message  " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
"   in CentOs?
>
> My queries are the following -
> 1.  Why this is generated ?
Because root has mail in his mailbox.
> 2. How to disable this ?
You can disable the message with biff n (IIRC).  You can also redirect
root's (future) mail to a user mailbox by modifying /etc/aliases and 
running newaliases when done.  (That will not do anything with mail
already delivered to root.)
> 3. Is this system generated ?
The message is system-generated.  The mail is very likely output from
various system jobs, like cron jobs or other daemons.  In theory a
person could have send a message to root but that's not very common.
> 4. Is this message gain any importance ?
The only way to know is by reading the messages!  Some of them may
simply be informational, others may be important.

--keith

-- 
kkeller at wombat.san-francisco.ca.us

On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 3:45 AM, Norah Jones <nh.jones01 at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> 4. Is this message gain any importance ?
No one else can decide what is important to you.   But it can be
things like 'your hard disk is about to fail'.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com

From: Norah Jones <nh.jones01 at gmail.com>
> Why I get this message? " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
"?
> in CentOs?
> My queries are the following -
> 1.? Why this is generated ?
Because a mail was sent to the root user...
> 2. How to disable this ?
?????? MAILCHECK
????????????? Specifies how often (in seconds)? bash? checks? for? mail.?? The
????????????? default? is? 60 seconds.? When it is time to check for mail, the
????????????? shell does so before displaying the? primary? prompt.?? If? this
????????????? variable? is? unset,? or? set? to? a? value that is not a number
????????????? greater than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.

> 3. Is this system generated ?
Read the mail and see who sent it.
> 4. Is this message gain any importance ?
Read the mail and see if it is important...

If you want mail for root to go to another user, edit /etc/aliases

JD