April 2004 - dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] configuration problem.. with passwd
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 19 Apr '04

19 Apr '04

Hi i was trying to configure dovecot. Under the authentication section i have set the auth_passdb=/etc/passwd auth_user=root auth_userdb=/etc/passwd But it gives Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot.conf line 398 :missing value which points to auth_passdb=/etc/passwd in the file. Firstly do i need setup some other parameters I want to follow the most simple authentication process. Please advice. thanks

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[Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

Hi, Your mail was very insightful. You have stated in you mail as follows .. "But I think they create virtual users in database systems for email, I can't imagine all of the users they have are in one passwd file on one tiny machine." a. What do you mean by virtual users. b. How does one link them to a mailbox. Very frankly i am confused... 1.Well lets say i have a user who wants to create a new group say GROUP1.Lets say i have users who want to create GROUP1(a)pigeonhole.com or GROUP2(a)pigeonhole.com .This group name will be entered in my JSP page, now what do i have to do to create the group. 2.How do i see to that anyone who sends a mail to GROUP2@pigeonhole receives it in it mailbox( Firstly does the group have a mails box in the groups name).Will one create a account(mailbox) for the group or how is it done. 3.Lastly I actually want to create a mailing List manager. Please advice on how to go about it. Regards Kartik On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 Wouter Van Hemel wrote : >On Fri, 16 Apr 2004, Kartik Vaidyanathan wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I have actually configured dovecot because i required a mail server in > > order to build a mailing list manager.A mail list manager is something > > in the likes of yahoogroups, where each group in my case must have a > > mailbox. > > > >You need a MTA, such as postfix, qmail, sendmail, exim, etc. It's more >important than an imap server for what you want to do. > >Actually, I don't really understand why you need an imap server when >making a mailinglist manager. > > > 1. I am using Debian OS. > > The software that i am creating , which is going developed in JSP, will > > take a new users name and password and create a account for him by > > executing a shell script in my linux machine.I assume yahoo also does > > something similar to this to create new mail boxes for any new > > user.Please correct me if i am wrong. > > > >I don't know, I don't work at yahoo. But I think they create virtual users >in database systems for email, I can't imagine all of the users they have >are in one passwd file on one tiny machine. > > > In fact this very mail that i have received from you is because i have > > subscribed to the dovecott mailing list. How do you think dovecott has > > been able to accomplish this. Is it not because that dovecott has a > > mailbox in the group name "dovecott" in some system, that internally > > does the sending of mails to all those in the groups refering to some > > database. > > > >Dovecot doesn't have anything to do with that. It's mostly the MTA, aided >by the mailing list manager. > >Here's how majordomo (popular mailinglist manager) works: > >Bob wants to subscribe to the pigeonhole mailinglist. He emails or enters >his email address in a web form so it ends up in a database file with all >the other users on that list. The mailinglist manager's job is to take >care of adding (or removing) email addresses to (from) that file; it adds >Bob's address. > >When an email is sent to pigeonhole(a)pigeonhole.org, the mailer daemon >(MTA) receives this email, and instead of delivering it to a local user, >either it (1) delivers it to a pipe - it passes the email to the >mailinglist software, which then just generates an email that replaces the >original destination with the list of email addresses; or (2) the mailer >daemon itself forwards the email by alias expansion to the list of email >addresses the mailinglist software made. > >In the former case, the mailinglist manager reads the original message and >replaces the address with all those in the list's database; in the latter >case, basically the only thing a mailinglist manager does, is taking care >of an error-free database file with email addresses so the MTA can forward >the email to the addresses in this file. > >Because Bob's email address is in this file, his address will be inserted >in the headers of the message, and he will receive the email. > > > 2.Will the mail server support me in anyway by giving me some > > functionality to add users, thereby creating maildir's (imap) for the > > users. > > > >No, adding users is not the job of a mail server daemon. Or of an imap >server. Usually, you don't allow people to add users to your system, for >obvious reasons. > >If you want to add users to a mailing list, you don't need accounts for >those users, only when you also want to provide them with an email address. > >What do you want to do: provide email addresses, or a mailinglist manager? > > > 3.Dont I need to know the admin login and passwd, to create users? > > > >Yes, ofcourse. Unless your users are in a database server, in that case >you need the ability to add records to that database. > >(Shared webhosting accounts usually allow adding virtual users, if that's >the reasoning behind your question.) > > > 3.Lastly i know this is not that prevalent a question -> I was told mail > > man does a similar job as to what my software will do.Do you know how > > mailman works (or even yahoogroups)?. > > > >Not precisely, but pretty much like I said above. You can check out the >documentation and source code of said software. > >Yahoogroups probably uses custom written software, but still based on the >simple approach of a mailinglist manager taking care of a list of >subscribers, and the mailer daemon either itself or by aid of an external >program multiplicating the recipients. > > >A mailinglist manager has nothing to do with Dovecot. Dovecot has nothing >to do with *sending* email, only with retrieving it from a system with >IMAP of POP. It's the end-of-the-line for emails, delivery to final >destination; it does not forward or duplicate. > > > Please enlighten me on the above issues. > > Thanks a lot for you time. > > > >I'll send you the bill later. ;) > > > Regards > > Kartik > > > > > > > > >

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Re: Re: [Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

Hi, Thanks a lot for the mails.Well one major doubt that was prevailing was that do i need to create a system account for each person in order to send/receive mails, and from both(Sven Kirmess & Johannes Berg ) your mails i gather it is a must. But Is there a workaround to this? I have actually configured dovecot because i required a mail server in order to build a mailing list manager.A mail list manager is something in the likes of yahoogroups, where each group in my case must have a mailbox. 1. I am using Debian OS. The software that i am creating , which is going developed in JSP, will take a new users name and password and create a account for him by executing a shell script in my linux machine.I assume yahoo also does something similar to this to create new mail boxes for any new user.Please correct me if i am wrong. In fact this very mail that i have received from you is because i have subscribed to the dovecott mailing list. How do you think dovecott has been able to accomplish this. Is it not because that dovecott has a mailbox in the group name "dovecott" in some system, that internally does the sending of mails to all those in the groups refering to some database. 2.Will the mail server support me in anyway by giving me some functionality to add users, thereby creating maildir's (imap) for the users. 3.Dont I need to know the admin login and passwd, to create users? 3.Lastly i know this is not that prevalent a question -> I was told mail man does a similar job as to what my software will do.Do you know how mailman works (or even yahoogroups)?. Please enlighten me on the above issues. Thanks a lot for you time. Regards Kartik

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[Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 16 Apr '04

16 Apr '04

Hi, This is from your documentation Creating new users ------------------ Dovecot is interested in only one thing - being able to find the user's mail directory. With maildir you need to do mkdir ~user/Maildir, with mbox mkdir ~user/mail. what does ~ refer to. Pardon my ignorance in unix, i am relatively new to unix. Does not ~ refer to the user account in which you have logged in. So does that mean that maildir folder exist for only user accounts that already exist.My intention for asking the above is that i have a java program running, that will take a new users name and password, so with that can i create a mailbox for that person , or does the admin have to create an user account for that person , so that his maildir folder can be created. Please clarify my understanding of how it workds.. Thanks

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Avery Day 14 Apr '04

14 Apr '04

<quote who="Julian Melville"> >> Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. > > Looks the same as mine except for saying that the server is like > Courier... I left that bit blank and haven't had any hassles. What does > that change I wonder? > > Cheers, > > Julian. > > Actually I stole alot of the procedure from some website. Im not taking credit for anything I'm just doing the dirty work :) If you do perl conf.pl and change the IMAP server to courier it tells you everything that it changes --------------------------------------------------------- Please select your IMAP server: cyrus = Cyrus IMAP server uw = University of Washington's IMAP server exchange = Microsoft Exchange IMAP server courier = Courier IMAP server macosx = Mac OS X Mailserver quit = Do not change anything Command >> courier imap_server_type = courier default_folder_prefix = INBOX. trash_folder = Trash sent_folder = Sent draft_folder = Drafts show_prefix_option = false default_sub_of_inbox = false show_contain_subfolders_option = false optional_delimiter = . delete_folder = true ---------------------------------------------------------- -- Avery

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Julian Melville 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

> Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Looks the same as mine except for saying that the server is like Courier... I left that bit blank and haven't had any hassles. What does that change I wonder? Cheers, Julian.

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[Dovecot] Calling gentoo maintainers
by Zach Bagnall 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

If anyone knows someone with CVS access can they please take another look at http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22080. It has been in bugzilla for nearly nine months. Would like to see this in portage - masked is fine - so at least everyone is working off the same file. Cheers Zach.

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Zoong Pham 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

Is that dovecot in your FAQ serving mbox or mdir format? Thanks, Zoong -----Original Message----- From: Avery Day [mailto:schrock@dayzed.com] Sent: Tuesday, 13 April 2004 12:07 PM To: dovecot(a)dovecot.org Subject: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website On the Squirrelmail website I setup in the FAQ a quick install guid on how to get squirrelmail to work with Dovecot. Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Maybe someone thinks this is wrong. Also if you have something to add please do so. No one has bothered to do this before so I took it upon my self. Here is the link in the FAQ its about 8 lines down http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/InstallingSquirrelMail Here is where the link takes you http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/SquirrelMailAndDovecotIMAP Thanks -- Avery

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[Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Avery Day 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

On the Squirrelmail website I setup in the FAQ a quick install guid on how to get squirrelmail to work with Dovecot. Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Maybe someone thinks this is wrong. Also if you have something to add please do so. No one has bothered to do this before so I took it upon my self. Here is the link in the FAQ its about 8 lines down http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/InstallingSquirrelMail Here is where the link takes you http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/SquirrelMailAndDovecotIMAP Thanks -- Avery

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[Dovecot] Dovecot for production environment
by Avery Day 11 Apr '04

11 Apr '04

Sorry if this question has been asked before I looked through some of the archives before posting this. I am considering using dovecot on a small 35 user environment (only around 6 gigs of email) that will be primarly be used with squirrelmail for the MUA. I have been using dovecot for a few weeks now and really like it. It is a big improvement over uw-imap thats for sure. I was wondering how many people in this mailing list are using dovecot for a production email server, and why you chose to use dovecot over cyrus or courier. Or maybe someone feels that dovecot isnt ready for this type of thing just yet. I am all ears so please feel free. Thanks -- Avery -- Avery Day

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