biff and client/server configs

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Article #3582

#3582

From: Elizabeth A. Evans
Date: Thu, 23 May 1991 16:18

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Speaking of biff...

We're running a network of Sun servers and (mostly diskless) clients.
Each client gets primary user disk space from one of the servers.  This
includes /var/spool/mail files.  What this means is that the mail file
is modified/appended on a server, not on the client where the user is
actually logged in.  Under this set of circumstances, biff doesn't
seem to work for the user on the client.

For example, I login (usually) to a client named cahaba.  Cahaba is
(mostly) diskless and gets my home directory space and
/var/spool/mail file from a server named winton.  I set biff y.  If
I'm logged into cahaba, nothing happens when mail is delivered.  If
I'm logged into the server, winton, biff works as usual.

The Question Is, is there an (easy) easy to get biff to recognize this
situation and to beep and print the first few lines if a user is
logged into the client instead of the server where the mail file
actually lives?  

-- Libby
============
Elizabeth A. Evans
Office of Information Systems
UNC-CH School of Medicine

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!gatech!mcnc!beguine!uevans
From: uevans@med.unc.edu (Elizabeth A. Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: biff and client/server configs
Message-ID: <3880@beguine.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 91 16:18:44 GMT
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Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
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Originator: uevans@cahaba