The pam_mail PAM module provides the "you have new mail" service to the user. It can be plugged into any application that has credential or session hooks. It gives a single message indicating the
newness
of any mail it finds in the user's mail folder. This module also sets the PAM environment variable,
MAIL, to the user's mail directory.
If the mail spool file (be it
/var/mail/$USER
or a pathname given with the
dir=
parameter) is a directory then pam_mail assumes it is in the
Maildir
format.
OPTIONS
close
Indicate if the user has any mail also on logout.
debug
Print debug information.
dir=maildir
Look for the users' mail in an alternative location defined by
maildir/<login>. The default location for mail is
/var/mail/<login>. Note, if the supplied
maildir
is prefixed by a '~', the directory is interpreted as indicating a file in the user's home directory.
empty
Also print message if user has no mail.
hash=count
Mail directory hash depth. For example, a
hashcount
of 2 would make the mail file be
/var/spool/mail/u/s/user.
noenv
Do not set the
MAIL
environment variable.
nopen
Don't print any mail information on login. This flag is useful to get the
MAIL
environment variable set, but to not display any information about it.
quiet
Only report when there is new mail.
standard
Old style "You have..." format which doesn't show the mail spool being used. This also implies "empty".
MODULE SERVICES PROVIDED
The
auth
and
account
services are supported.
RETURN VALUES
PAM_BUF_ERR
Memory buffer error.
PAM_SERVICE_ERR
Badly formed arguments.
PAM_SUCCESS
Success.
PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
User not known.
EXAMPLES
Add the following line to
/etc/pam.d/login
to indicate that the user has new mail when they login to the system.