🚀 go-pugleaf

dan@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu (Daniel Zabetakis) wrote:
>
>    We are having a problem with a full mail spool. Some users have
>large amounts of mail kept there. I am pretty sure that much of it is
>from mailing lists that they don't want to dump into thier account mbox,
>but don't really want to delete. Well, it is going to have to go now.

I run into the same problem about once each semester.

>   My question in regard to policy is whether it is OK to threaten to
>remove the mail. I intend to write to the active users by e-mail and ask
>them to remove excessive mail (or explain why it is neccessary to keep
>it). If they fail to respond to a reasonable attempt, I intend to delete
>the mail. (probably won't happen).

Our general policy sets a size limit of 150 Kb on user mailboxes.  I check 
the mailbox sizes (rougly) biweekly.   I also wrote a quick shell script,
named "mailsize", that will tell users the size of their mailbox and issue
a gentle reminder if they're over the limit.

If a user mailbox is over the limit for two consecutive checks (which cover
a month), I send a quick piece of mail, asking them to delete/save mail from 
their mailbox.  If they fail to do so, and if they are still over the 150 Kb 
limit after two weeks, the entire mailbox is moved into their home directory.  
(If the mailbox is *really* large, I'll compress it) I then send a piece of 
mail (which will be the first one they see) explaining my action and telling 
them how to access the old mailbox (the -f option to mailx).

I consider this a decent solution for our users, because:
	- The user has up to 6 weeks to deal with the situation
	- The mail is not destroyed
	- The mail is still accessible
	- The diskspace consumption counts against their resource quotas
	  (For our users, resource quotas are a constant goad to responsibility)

>   The real question comes up for the occasional users. Some people only
>log on every few months, if that. I don't want to have to track them
>down and explain the problem to them individually. How much effort should
>I take to get in contact with them before deleting the mail as unwanted.
>We don't often remove accounts (being a depertmental machine with not too
>many users).

The same scenario applies to all user mailboxes.

>   What about runaway mailing lists? I think some of our users who don't
>log in often have joined mailing lists, but never read the mail. Can I
>look at the mail to determine if this is the case? What should I do if it
>is?

I don't think you should look at the actual mail.  However, you can (and
I do) examine the mailer logs, which only show date, time, sender, desti-
nation, and size.  (Alternatively, you can extract the From: headers with
any grep-like tool)  I believe that this approach minimizes your intrusion
into user's confidentiality.

If an large but untouched mailbox has a lot of mailing list traffic, AND if 
the user ignores (or misses) my earlier messages, I'll contact the mailing 
list owner and request that the user be removed.

I've only had to do this about 6 times in 3 years.......

--Wes
-- 
MORGAN@UKCC         |       Wes Morgan       |        ...!ukma!ukecc!morgan 
morgan@ms.uky.edu   | Engineering  Computing |   morgan@wuarchive.wustl.edu
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