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Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: boff on October 07, 2005, 12:30:48 PM

Title: How do I add a user account or pseudonym called Mail
Post by: boff on October 07, 2005, 12:30:48 PM

Hi there,

I've got a problem. A client of mine has gone and printed all of their stationary with a general email address of

mail@xxx.com

This appears to be a reserved name that is not meant to be used as a user name or as a pseudonym.
Help!!!

I've tried searching for the answer but it's a hard one to word correctly. Any help much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Julian

Title: Re: How do I add a user account or pseudonym called Mail
Post by: NickR on October 08, 2005, 02:53:29 AM

Quote from: "boff"

Hi there,

I've got a problem. A client of mine has gone and printed all of their stationary with a general email address of

mail@xxx.com

This appears to be a reserved name that is not meant to be used as a user name or as a pseudonym.

Correct, "mail" is a reserved account name (one of many).  This is an expensive mistake by your client and has no workaround, AFAIK.

For anyone else wanting to avoid this situation, the list of pre-defined accounts can be found in /etc/group with a UID of less than 500

Title: Re: How do I add a user account or pseudonym called Mail
Post by: gordonr on October 08, 2005, 03:23:13 AM

Quote from: "NickR"

Correct, "mail" is a reserved account name (one of many).  This is an expensive mistake by your client

I strongly disagree. It's a design limitation in the SME Server out of the box (but easily fixable). Suggesting that the fix is to reprint stationery won't win friends...

Quote from: "NickR"

and has no workaround, AFAIK.

There are lots of workarounds, and it should also be raised as a bug. The quick hack workaround is:

Code: [Select]

echo fred > ~alias/.qmail-mail

While this works, it won't be kept across a backup/restore. But it's a useful interim measure until it's fixed properly.

The proper fix is to allow 'system' accounts to be managed as for normal accounts in the pseudonyms panel. At the moment there is code which gives all 'system' account mail to 'admin'. That should be configurable on a per-account basis, defaulting to admin.