pam_mail 8 Linux-PAM Manual pam_mail Inform about available mail pam_mail.so close debug dir=maildir empty hash=count noenv nopen quit standard The pam_mail PAM module provides the "you have new mail" service to the user. It can be plugged into any application that has credential or session hooks. It gives a single message indicating the newness of any mail it finds in the user's mail folder. This module also sets the PAM environment variable, MAIL, to the user's mail directory. If the mail spool file (be it /var/mail/$USER or a pathname given with the dir= parameter) is a directory then pam_mail assumes it is in the Maildir format. close Indicate if the user has any mail also on logout. debug Print debug information. dir=maildir Look for the users' mail in an alternative location defined by maildir/<login>. The default location for mail is /var/mail/<login>. Note, if the supplied maildir is prefixed by a '~', the directory is interpreted as indicating a file in the user's home directory. empty Also print message if user has no mail. hash=count Mail directory hash depth. For example, a hashcount of 2 would make the mail file be /var/spool/mail/u/s/user. noenv Do not set the MAIL environment variable. nopen Don't print any mail information on login. This flag is useful to get the MAIL environment variable set, but to not display any information about it. quiet Only report when there is new mail. standard Old style "You have..." format which doesn't show the mail spool being used. This also implies "empty". The auth and account services are supported. PAM_BUF_ERR Memory buffer error. PAM_SERVICE_ERR Badly formed arguments. PAM_SUCCESS Success. PAM_USER_UNKNOWN User not known. Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/login to indicate that the user has new mail when they login to the system. session optional pam_mail.so standard pam.conf5 , pam.d8 , pam8 pam_mail was written by Andrew G. Morgan <morgan@kernel.org>.