[CentOS] Why I get this message " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root " ?

Thu Dec 19 10:09:29 UTC 2013
Jake Shipton <jakems at fedoraproject.org>

On Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:45:26 +0000
Norah Jones <nh.jones01 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, 
> 
> Why I get this message  " You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
> "   in CentOs?
> 
> My queries are the following -
> 1.  Why this is generated ?
> 2. How to disable this ?
> 3. Is this system generated ?
> 4. Is this message gain any importance ?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Norah Jones
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

Hi,

Basically, this is just a "You've got mail" notification.

Most likely these are system generated logs or errors being mailed to
root.

When logged into root type "mail" to see them.

Importance wise, it depends on what you perceive as important.

I myself like to know what is going on with my system so I leave them
on, while others do not.

Disabling them would involve either, disabling postfix all together (or
any other mailserver), this would prevent all system mail. 

Or, if you are using this as an email server, disabling other things such as
logwatch, and any other script which may mail root, 

Lastly another option is creating a dumby user for all mail directed at
root to go by setting up aliases in /etc/aliases (Basically at end:
root: dumbyuser) and then running newaliases.

Hope this helps :-).

Regards,
Jake Shipton (JakeMS)
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