[Dovecot] New User: POP3 issues

[Curtis Maloney]

kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com wrote:
> Fellow dovecot'ers,
> 
> I'm just getting started with Dovecot, and I'm not a programmer, so please be 
> gentle. ;-)
> 
> THE PLATFORM: NetBSD 3.0/SPARC, Postfix 2.3-RC8, current Dovecot RC (I 
> forgot the number). Maildir-type directories.
> 
> THE GOAL: To accommodate authenticated (remote) POP3 users with APOP or 
> SSL/TLS, and allow users on the internal network (192.168.x.x) to just use basic 
> POP3 without worrying about authentication.

Well, we're off to a good start, already :)  Plenty of information it good.

> QUESTIONS:
> 
> (1) Does the dovecot master daemon have to be running in order to call pop3-
> login from inetd, in response to POP connection attempts? If so, it could be a 
> problem. I'm getting this error when I try to start the thing.
> 
> featherweb: {339} /usr/local/sbin/dovecot
> Fatal: listen(110) failed: Address already in use
> featherweb: {340}

This is, I'm guessing, because inetd is already listening on port 110.  The 
Dovecot master program and inetd are doing much of the same work: listening for 
connections, handing them off to the appropriate child task, etc..

My own search of the mailing list archives shows release notes from 1.0beta9 
saying POP3 works from inetd, however I can't find more details.  It would be 
worth your time to look through the mailing list archives if you haven't 
already: http://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot/

> (2) For apop authentication, how do I go about generating the shared secret file 
> locally, for each user? Is there a script that came with dovecot or...?
> 
> (3) Is there a trick, similar to postfix's 'postconf -n,' that will give a condensed 
> output of dovecot's configuration file?

I believe this was added during the beta stage, but as I've not yet migrated to 
1.0 myself, I can't easily test.


> (4) I'm currently using sasl auth for Postfix's SMTP auth function. How difficult is it 
> to use Dovecot for the same thing?

You mean Cyrus SASL?  *shudder*.  Recent versions of Postfix support 
authenticating directly against the Dovecot SASL daemon, though if you're not 
running the Dovecot master process, you may also not be running the auth process.

> (5) GAAAAHHHHH! (Just on general principles, based on the hours I've spent 
> trying to get everything working).

I think every one of us has been where you are now, in a frustrating bind that 
you feel should be easier.

And that is why I believe you will find much help here :)

On a more general note - why do people prefer to use inetd instead of Dovecot 
master?

--
C