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@roughtrade.net - FW109