Douglas Winship writes:
 
>Can anyone explain to me what this error message means?
 
> mail: could not open mail file for locking: Permission denied
> mail: /usr/mail/xxxxxx not locked
> 554 <[log in to unmask]>... unknown mailer error 2
 
>Is it trying to tell me the person's disk space is full?
 
Probably not; most Unix systems give a "cannot write" error
message when a mailbox (or mail partition) runs out of space.
 
>Or maybe someone is learning UNIX and messing around with
>permissions that ought not to be messed with?
 
Possibly; of course, only [log in to unmask] can
answer that one.
 
>The mailer is screwed up (is it locked or not?)?
 
Well, seraph1.sewanee.edu is a Macintosh running A/UX, so this
is the most likely problem.  8)
 
It could mean that the mailbox doesn't exist.  I've discovered
that some variants of Unix won't create a mailbox if it doesn't
already exist. (or if the user, having read all his mail, deletes
it)  I've had to create empty mailbox files as part of my "new
user" setup.........
 
--Wes