[Dovecot] Basic questions concerning mail...

[Joshua Goodall]

You need to mentally sort out the distinction between different roles
in email systems.

Email is originated (created) by a Mail User Agent - e.g. Mutt,
Outlook, Evolution, Webmail.

Email is transported by a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) - e.g. Postfix,
Sendmail, Exim, Qmail.

Email is stored in a Message Store - e.g. Maildir, mbox, various
custom databases.

Email in a store is made available by POP3 or IMAP servers e.g.
Dovecot.  (or you may have direct access to the filesystem).

Finally, Email is displayed by another Mail User Agent
(mutt/outlook/webmail).


In some integrated systems, the same component fulfills multiple roles.

For example (and simplifying a little),
Exchange is a MTA, message store and IMAP server;
Cyrus is a message store and IMAP server.

Most MTAs can write to a message store, either directly or via
a tool called a Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) like Procmail.


Dovecot is just an IMAP server.  It happens to be fast, efficient
and secure.  Occasionally I feel motivated to stick a SMTP/LMTP front-end
on it so that it can be a Cyrus-killing integrated MDA/Store/IMAP system.

Hope this helps :)

Joshua.




On Mon, Feb 16, 2004 at 12:01:35AM +0100, Tom wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> A few minutes ago, I installed Dovecot, hoping things would get clear by
> just looking at the relevant config files, but since they don't, I hope
> someone here could give me a clue...
> 
> What I want to achieve is really only basic functionality. It's just for
> personal use, so it shouldn't get too complicated. Up til now, I have
> been using fetchmail to get my mail off of several POP3-accounts, exim
> to hand it over to procmail and procmail to drop it in the mail
> directories of my girlfriend and I.
> 
> I'd like to be able to remotely use a webmail program of some kind to
> check mail without having to use ssh to login. So I thought an
> IMAP-server might be the way to go, but, embarassing though it may be, I
> can't quite grasp how Dovecot (any IMAPd of course, for that matter)
> fits in the whole.
> 
> Should Dovecot receive mail from fetchmail and put in it it's proper
> place in the user's home directories? Or does Dovecot merely read any
> mail that might belong to users, told where to look by dovecot.conf?
> 
> Since I now notice my questions are put in a way that is equally
> embarassing as the questions themselves, I'll keep it short: could
> anyone enlighten me about the role of Dovecot / an IMAPd it the whole of
> a mail system (mail directories for each user, fetchmail, procmail, an
> MTA, a MUA)?
> 
> Sincerely apologizing for wasting your undoubtedly valuable time,
> Tom
> 
> -- 
> "Mongolian drivers do not care much about pedestrians."
> --
> np: Vive La F?te - Assez (flac)
>     

-- 
Joshua Goodall                           "as modern as tomorrow afternoon"
joshua at roughtrade.net                                       - FW109