mail-expire changes mailbox ownership when ran by root.

smtp:/var/spool/mail# ls -lah
-rw-r--r--   1 spambox      mail 2.5M Dec 21 00:41 spambox

smtp:/var/spool/mail# mail-expire --delete 7 /var/spool/mail/spambox

smtp:/var/spool/mail# ls -lah
-rw-r--r--   1 root         mail 2.5M Dec 21 01:00 spambox

This causes that postfix is unable to write to the mailbox:

Dec 20 07:59:22 smtp postfix/local[31490]: EA97C20B05C:
to=<spambox@smtp.kansallisverkko.fi>, orig_to=<ahti.kytola@kokoomus.fi>,
relay=local, delay=1, status=bounced (cannot access mailbox
/var/mail/spambox for user spambox. cannot open file: Permission denied)

I think that mail-expire should not change the ownership of the mailbox in
any circumstances.

I am using Debian GNU/Linux 3.1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
mail-expire, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 344222@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Eduard Bloch <blade@debian.org> (supplier of updated mail-expire package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2026 23:07:47 +0200
Source: mail-expire
Architecture: source
Version: 0.9.3
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Eduard Bloch <blade@debian.org>
Changed-By: Eduard Bloch <blade@debian.org>
Closes: 344222
Changes:
 mail-expire (0.9.3) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Safeguard to not run into --delete mode by mistake and lose messages without
     any warning (by adding a delay and hint and --yes option to override it)
   * Best-effort attempt to restore original ownership and permissions of
     recreated Mbox files after filtering (closes: #344222)
Checksums-Sha1:
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 47772c33a254d96edbf47032deaa137eef59685b 11012 mail-expire_0.9.3.tar.xz
 e8f4fd2fc32465d4fc3694e2b9933cfe1ab79082 7744 mail-expire_0.9.3_source.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
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 75abab7152a4f0dc3e8f7bb187010e4ec31badbbbfbe8a1088278a17e2e532f5 11012 mail-expire_0.9.3.tar.xz
 4324c2fc8469425e27710a93f079f616a431e1f80383cd936d33bdb56584ca26 7744 mail-expire_0.9.3_source.buildinfo
Files:
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 017951509760f8afb23ed13781c5a98e 11012 utils optional mail-expire_0.9.3.tar.xz
 3b0d4f3759d65b6d041adf7cf211644f 7744 utils optional mail-expire_0.9.3_source.buildinfo
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