[Dovecot] triggering multiple actions on pop-3 request

[Eric S. Johansson]

Skye Poier wrote:

> If you want to launch fetchmail, you'd probably want to do a fork()
> after authentication.
> 
> In the child, you would execl() fetchmail.
> 
> In the parent you would wait() for the exit status of the child.

I figured a fork and exec would probably be what's called for. 
Although, I would probably want to cast off the child process and let it 
run to completion on its own.
> 
> You probably wouldn't want to do that in dovecot-auth or it might block
> all other auth while it is executing?  I haven't really looked at the
> design so I don't know.  The best place would probably be right before
> it tries to read the user's Maildir, in its own process.

the best place would be a place for I have all of the necessary 
information about the user and is a mainline pass through the code so it 
will always be executed.  If you do this right, it could be a plug-in 
point for pre access functionality.  There is probably some equivalent 
location for post access.  Might be an interesting place to put in 
plug-in infrastructure so we can do all sorts of things to people's 
e-mail.  For example, I have often thought that it would be interesting 
to have some sort of filter after read type capability.  Where all 
messages go into your inbox  and after you read them, a filtering 
decision is made and the message is put in the appropriate destination 
automatically.  Probably best client side but server side filtering has 
many advantages including the ability to change clients and not having 
to move your 200 filter rules.

in any case.  I can see the argument for putting things down in the 
actual server code.

---eric