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I have a mail system set up on my server (Postfix + Dovecot) that I use for personal and sys-admin email. Every time I login via shell (for all of my accounts), the message "You have old mail." is displayed below the MOTD modules I've configured.

I can't delete or move (most of) my read mail elsewhere, but I'd like to hide this message; it's pointless and clutters my MOTD. I'd prefer to keep the "You have new mail." message if possible, but I'm willing to lose it if that's what it takes.

I don't think this message is from a MOTD module, and it shows up on both SSH and local.

How can I hide or remove the "You have old mail." message when logging into shell?

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  • Is it really “You have old mail.”, or is it “You have mail”? – Stephen Kitt Nov 14 '18 at 15:27
  • @StephenKitt It is really "You have old mail." – ATLief Nov 14 '18 at 15:30
  • Thanks, that discriminates between bash and pam_mail ;-). – Stephen Kitt Nov 14 '18 at 15:34
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It is probably generated by the PAM pam_mail.so module.

Edit /etc/pam.d/login en comment out the line that looks like:

session    optional   pam_mail.so standard

Alternatively, keep the line but remove standard if it's there, and add nopen to the end.

It may be necessary to do the same in the /etc/pam.d/sshd file.

See man pam_mail for more information.

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  • I would suggest quiet rather than nopen. That way a message will appear for new mail, but not for old. – Stephen Kitt Nov 14 '18 at 15:35
  • Just a small correction; the file to edit for SSH is /etc/pam.d/sshd not /etc/pam.d/pam_sshd – ATLief Nov 14 '18 at 15:44
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The message is produced by pam_mail.so module. Find it in the various files in /etc/pam.d (there may be more than one, to cover the different ways of logging in) and find a line that has pam_mail.so standard. Add the verb quiet.

More details in the man page.

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