10 days ago I proposed this addition (see below) to Dovecot and got a lot of positive response. I would like to make it happen. I'm willing to contribute $500 to the development of this feature. It doesn't have to be implemented perfectly but needs to be workable to the extent that I can telnet into the Dovecot server and run it manually from the command line. I want to at least be able to run a simple script that I will write to add or remove someone from a black list text file.
Timo has limited time but has indicated that he will allow it as a kind of undocumented feature (or wiki documented only). This is a sort of proof of concept feature and if it ever becomes a standard the standard will probably be different. However, we should implement it in a way that would be as close to a standard as possible.
So - I'm looking for a programmer to make it happen. I'm also looking for others who might also kick in a few bucks as well if necessary. Here's the rough spec.
Here's some thoughts I'd like to throw out there. I know it's not standard IMAP protocol but someone has to try new ideas first and I want to see what people (Timo) think of this.
IMAP establishes a connection between the client and the server. Wouldn't it be great if it could be a conduit to let custom Thunderbird plugins talk to custom server application over the IMAP interface? For example, personalized server settings. Suppose for example I want Thunderbird to edit my server side white lists or black lists or any other setting? Wouldn't it be nice if IMAP supported these changes? The connection is made. It's a secure connection that's been authenticated. Lets use it!
Here's my initial thoughts on this. Suppose we extended IMAP to include an EXECUTE command as follows:
EXECUTE command parameter, parameter ....
On the server side is a config file that has the commands that execute will allow and what programs they run. When the execute command is seen by Dovecot then Dovecot runs the program in the list with the parameters passed. For example, suppose there is a command to add a user to a server side blacklist.
100 execute blacklist add joe@smith.com 100 ok
Dovecot would open a two way connection to the server application allowing the client to talk to any application that is configured and can send and receive text. The connection persists until the server end terminates or the client closes the connection.
With a tool like this one can write generic applications easily that would greatly expand what email clients can do interacting with the server. Not only can setting be changes but you could interact with server side calendars, pick up voice messages from phone systems, run any sort of groupware, all over a generic IMAP connection with this simple extension.
Example:
100 EXECUTE calendar 100 ok 100 list schedule today 8:00 10:00 100 8:00 make coffee 100 9:00 meeting with boss 100 9:30 Call Joe Blow at 415-555-1212 100 ok 100 quit 100 ok
One thing I'd like to use it for is an outgoing SMTP connection to send outgoing email over IMAP. A session might look like this:
999 EXECUTE smtp 999 220 darwin.ctyme.com ESMTP Exim 4.67 Sun, 13 May 2007 06:52:26 -0700 999 helo ctyme.com 999 250 darwin.ctyme.com Hello localhost [127.0.0.1] 999 mail from:marc@perkel.com 999 250 OK 999 rcpt to:dovecot@dovecot.org 999 250 Accepted ...... 999 quit 999 OK
Config File:
There would have to be a config file that would be a table of what command run what. An example might look like this:
calendar: /usr/bin/dovecot/calendar blacklist: /etc/exim/scripts/blacklist
Probably might eventually want to add UID/GID and root directory restrictions for security. Login information and connection IP should be passed in the environment.