[gentoo-dev] [PATCH 0/1] add net-mail/mailbase to @system

[gentoo-dev] [PATCH 0/1] add net-mail/mailbase to @system

[kangie]

From: Matt Jolly <kangie@gentoo.org>

Ran into this while debugging a WSL user creation script.
It seems to have been an issue for quite a while, doesn't
really cost us anything to fix, and is probably better at
meeting user expectations than the current behaviour.

Matt Jolly (1):
  profiles/default/linux: add net-mail/mailbase to @system

 profiles/default/linux/packages | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

-- 
2.49.0

[gentoo-dev] [PATCH 1/1] profiles/default/linux: add net-mail/mailbase to @system

[kangie]

From: Matt Jolly <kangie@gentoo.org>

The Gentoo Handbook has, for a long time, provided instructions to create
new users with the -m flag. However, this now results in the error
"Creating mailbox file: No such file or directory" because
`/var/spool/mail` is no longer included in stage3 tarballs.

It can also be assumed that most seasoned Linux/Unix users
expect local mail delivery (and in particular user mailboxes)
are included in a standard distribution (i.e. not bloat).

Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/520064
Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/910754
Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/920818
Signed-off-by: Matt Jolly <kangie@gentoo.org>
---
 profiles/default/linux/packages | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/profiles/default/linux/packages b/profiles/default/linux/packages
index 6d35bf72e202..9bc63f1b7e12 100644
--- a/profiles/default/linux/packages
+++ b/profiles/default/linux/packages
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2004-2021 Gentoo Authors.
+# Copyright 2004-2025 Gentoo Authors.
 # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
 # This file extends the base packages file for the default profile that all
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 # will have.  Some will have an selinux profile (see ${PORTDIR}/profiles/selinux).
 # The idea is to only create a new family of profiles when absolutely necessary.
 
+*net-mail/mailbase
 *sys-apps/iproute2
 *sys-apps/man-pages
 *sys-apps/net-tools
-- 
2.49.0

[gentoo-dev] Re: [PATCH 1/1] profiles/default/linux: add net-mail/mailbase to @system

[Mike Gilbert]

On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 8:04 PM <kangie@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
> From: Matt Jolly <kangie@gentoo.org>
>
> The Gentoo Handbook has, for a long time, provided instructions to create
> new users with the -m flag. However, this now results in the error
> "Creating mailbox file: No such file or directory" because
> `/var/spool/mail` is no longer included in stage3 tarballs.

An alternative would be to change the default shadow config to disable
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL, or switch to using MAIL_FILE (relative to home
directory) instead.

The @system change seems less disruptive.