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LFCS · Question #288

An administrator is running an email server configured with the default settings. In which directory will the administrator commonly find the delivered mail for the user foo?

The correct answer is A. /var/spool/mail. On a Linux email server with default settings, delivered mail for a user like 'foo' is commonly found in the /var/spool/mail directory.

Submitted by salim_om· Apr 18, 2026Operation of Running Systems

Question

An administrator is running an email server configured with the default settings. In which directory will the administrator commonly find the delivered mail for the user foo?

Options

  • A/var/spool/mail
  • B/home/foo/mail
  • C/var/mail/spool
  • D/var/users/mail

How the community answered

(25 responses)
  • A
    92% (23)
  • C
    4% (1)
  • D
    4% (1)

Why each option

On a Linux email server with default settings, delivered mail for a user like 'foo' is commonly found in the `/var/spool/mail` directory.

A/var/spool/mailCorrect

The `/var/spool/mail` directory is the standard and default location on Unix-like operating systems where incoming email for local users is stored, with each user typically having a separate file named after their username within this directory.

B/home/foo/mail

`/home/foo/mail` could be a user's personal mail directory (e.g., for Maildir format), but it is not the default system-wide spool directory for newly delivered mail.

C/var/mail/spool

While `/var/mail` is sometimes used and often a symlink to `/var/spool/mail`, `/var/mail/spool` is not a standard default directory structure for mail spools.

D/var/users/mail

`/var/users/mail` is not a standard or commonly used directory path for mail spooling on Linux systems.

Concept tested: Linux mail server default mail spool

Source: https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch03s15.html

Topics

#Mailbox location#Linux file system hierarchy#Email server defaults#/var/spool/mail

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