The other day I had user who was having problems popping mail from the mail server. My first thoughts were wrong password, POP server issue or permissions. Well, it was none of the above. Then I started thinking about the mailbox itself. Here's what I found.
Btw, this example is not the original user's mailbox but it should demonstrate the problem.
Notice there are three lines that don't make much sense.
# cd /var/mail
# more user1
Status: RO
X-Status: $$$$
X-UID: 0000000001
From user2 Fri Jun 29 22:51:34 2007
Return-Path: <user2>
Received: (from user2@localhost)
by esoft (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) id l5TDpYJ01536
for root; Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:51:34 +0900 (KST)
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:51:34 +0900 (KST)
From: Super-User <user2>
Message-Id: <200706291351.l5tdpyj01536@esoft>
...
...
I deleted those 3 lines (plus the blank line) and re-saved the mailbox. After that, he was able to pull his mail successfully.
# more user1
From user2 Fri Jun 29 22:51:34 2007
Return-Path: <user2>
Received: (from user2@localhost)
by esoft (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) id l5TDpYJ01536
for root; Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:51:34 +0900 (KST)
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:51:34 +0900 (KST)
From: Super-User <user2>
Message-Id: <200706291351.l5tdpyj01536@esoft>
...
...