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I have this server I administer. I have some users that have email accounts on that server and use stuff like horde to read their emails on that server. The server have a limited space and these users are relapse and never empty their trashes or remove unnecessary stuff from their accounts and the server are always getting full of crap.

Running the server periodically I see that mailboxes like .Trash, .spam and .junk under /mail/myserver.com/theirAccounts are never emptied. I have no terminal access to that server, just FTP. My idea was to put directories like these with chmod 000, so their web mailers or even the system will unable to store stuff on their trash or on spam folders, discarding them automatically.

Can I do that without risking crashing the system? What more can I do to prevent stuff from accumulating on those directories. Again I remember that I do not have ssh to that server, so I cannot install cron or anything to empty these directories periodically.

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You have no shell access at all? So a housekeeping script or creating symlinks, that sort of thing, is not an option? – jippie May 15 '12 at 6:43
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You administer the server, but can't install cron? And what does ssh have to do with cron? – cjm May 15 '12 at 6:43
how you can chmod without being able to use cron ??? – bob May 15 '12 at 6:49
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@bob: Via FTP. It supports chmod. – camh May 15 '12 at 9:07
@cjm I have FTP access, not ssh. So I cannot use cron. – Digital Robot May 15 '12 at 20:28
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If you administer the server, you have terminal access. Change the settings for the e-mail system or set up a cron script to regularly clean out the desired folders.

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I don't have terminal access. I have FTP access. – Digital Robot May 15 '12 at 20:27
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If you don't have terminal access, you don't administer the server. – Alexander May 16 '12 at 13:28

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