[NBLUG/talk] Mail Removal

sms at sonic.net sms at sonic.net
Wed Apr 7 11:48:07 PDT 2004


> <background>
> there is an ethic of system administrators that goes against digging
> into mail spools of users.  while root has the technical ability to
> accomplish what you ask, privacy concerns without a written policy
> otherwise make it a legal mine trap to do what you ask.   and there may
> be an impossibility to get rid of all the copies if some mailboxes are
> on other machines that are not in your control.  for a discussion of
> this topic see page 854 "Boss's mistake #2" in the Green book "Linux
> Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, et. al. (or if you have the
> previous red or purple editions which were titled "Unix System
> Administration Handbook").  there is some expectation that sending an
> e-mail is something like dropping a letter in a post office box...once
> it's in the box you can't ask a postal employee or even the Postmaster
> to get it back for you.
> </background>

<nod>

In particular, users may have already read/saved/forwarded this message,
there may be an auto-FWD (the machine may have sent it "somewhere else"
within seconds of hitting "Send"), etc.

That said, there is an increasing trend within business to demand e-mail
accountability.  Nobody may send "offensive" e-mail on business systems,
even privately between individuals who won't be "offended;" etc.  And,
individual e-mails are regularly virus-scanned & spam-filtered, which
shows the principle that businesses can & do scan/filter messages.  Also,
it must be noted, 1300 mboxes are going to need to be done via automation.
Presumably, there won't be much impact on end-user privacy as the SysAdmin
won't *see* user-data, and the tool should ignore everything except the
target message.

IMHO, the "expectation" of similarity to snailmail service (once sent it
cannot be affected) is increasingly limited to academia.  I'm not entirely
happy with this "new" standard that's evolving, but I recognize that it's
so.

FWIW, I too endorse Nemeth et al; but, I believe the Unix volume is still
continuing & the Linux one isn't a replacement but more of a spin-off.  I
presume the next UNIX volume won't have much on Linux.



> when you're finished there should still be a blank line between the
> preceeding message and the "From " line of the now next message.

i.e. make a copy of a mbox to test your sed (or perl, or whatever) script
on, to be sure it DTRT.


- Steve S.

  p.s. I recall some years ago seeing a mbox-editor, suitable for this
       sort of use.  But, a couple of quick Googles haven't re-found it.







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