--------------------------- MAIL DIRECTORY SPACE CRUNCH --------------------------- This System News message describes an emergency situation that impacts all BCPL Internet account holders. We have a serious space problem on the hard disk where new mail is stored in each user's "UNIX mail file". I will describe the problem in more detail later for those who are interested. The ultimate solution is more hard disk space, and we are working on that. In the mean time, we ask every account holder to help out by clearing as much mail as possible out of your UNIX mail files. Here's how: PPP USERS --------- PPP-based mail programs (Eudora, Microsoft Exchange, Netscape Navigator, Air Mail, etc.) extract new messages from your UNIX mail file, download them from the server to your computer, and store them on your own hard disk. However, depending on how your mail program is configured, mail you have already downloaded may also remain on the server. If so, your UNIX mail file continues to grow and eventually eats up far too much valuable disk space on the server. You should configure your mail program to remove old mail from the server. This way, once your new mail is downloaded to your Mac or PC the original copies are removed from your mail file on the UNIX host. How you do this depends on which mail program you use. In Eudora go to "SPECIAL : SETTINGS : CHECKING MAIL" and make sure the "LEAVE MAIL ON SERVER" checkbox IS NOT selected. In Netscape Navigator go to "PREFERENCES : MAIL & NEWS : SERVERS" and make sure the radio button for "REMOVE MAIL FROM SERVER" IS selected. If you have trouble with this, or if you use some other mail program and can't find the place to change this setting, refer to the program manual, or contact the software publisher, or contact the BCPL Help Desk (887-3297) for assistance. PPP users please note that deleting messages from within your mail program only deletes them from your own hard disk. It does not delete them from the mail server. It is the "remove from server" and "leave on server" settings described above that control whether or not your old mail is deleted from the server. UNIX SHELL ACCOUNT USERS ------------------------ Most of our shell account users use the Pine mail program. In Pine your UNIX mail file is shown as your "Inbox". Please remove as many messages as possible from your Inbox. Your Inbox should not be used for long-term storage of messages. If you need to save messages, you should move them to other locations. You can use Pine's "S" (save) command to move them to saved-mail folders in your own home directory. Or, you can use the "E" (export) command to save them as files in your home directory, then download them from there to your own Mac or PC. Pine users please note that this concerns only mail stored in your Inbox. Mail stored in your other Pine folders is not on the same hard disk, so it does not contribute to the problem. AMBIDEXTROUS USERS ------------------ If you sometimes use a PPP-based mail program and sometimes use Pine, you may prefer to set your PPP mail program to leave mail on the server. This way you will always have access to all your new mail no matter which way you choose to read it. If you do this, please be sure to use Pine to delete mail from your Inbox as described earlier. EVERYONE -------- Thanks in advance for your cooperation! THE PROBLEM ----------- Now for the details, for those who are interested. During the night of Thursday, August 29, the hard disk on which new mail for all users is stored filled up. This has been happening with increasing frequency. In the past we have been able to free up space on that disk by deleting or compressing non-essential files. This time we were able to free up a small amount of disk space, but there is nothing left to delete and the disk will undoubtedly fill up again very soon. When that particular hard disk fills up our mail delivery system is no longer able to deliver new mail. This brings mail delivery to a standstill, and under some circumstances can cause loss of incoming mail. A serious side effect is that this also causes another directory where Pine, Mail and Sendmail store temporary files to fill up. Many other programs depend on that same directory for writing temporary files, so when it fills up many programs stop working. The end result is that the UNIX host slows to a crawl and many functions stop working altogether. The ultimate solution is to add more disk space, and we will be doing that in the very near future. In fact, we will be moving our user services to a completely new UNIX computer, a Sun SPARC 1000 with 258 megabytes of RAM, dual processors, and tons of disk space. If you have any questions about the disk space emergency or about anything else pertaining to your BCPL Internet account, please contact the BCPL Help Desk by phone (887-3297) or by e-mail (oz@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us).