[Dovecot] big picture

[John Simpson]

On 2009-04-06, at 0836, Mohsen Pahlevanzadeh wrote:
>
> You & every mail-man saw Big Picture of qmail.
> I assumed qmail is black box.I want to extend big picture, i use qmail
> admin ,Devocot & vpopmail.
> I draw a few relation.Can you tell me whether i draw correct?Also i  
> need
> to if i didn't draw relation tell me that i will draw that.

the way i've always thought about it, is that there are three  
"phases", and it's easier to think of each "phase" as a separate set  
of operations.

(1) message being sent INTO the queue, whether they originate from  
another process on the local machine, or from some other server (via  
qmail-smtpd or something similiar.)

(2) message being moved OUT OF the queue, either going into a local  
mailbox, or being forwarded to some other server.

(3) for messages in the mailbox, access to those mailboxes via POP3 or  
IMAP, or webmail (which usually, but not always, involves IMAP.)

i find it's easier to think of each "phase" of the process separately.

i made some diagrams a few years ago, which document the first two  
parts of the process.

http://qmail.jms1.net/qmail-1-incoming.pdf
http://qmail.jms1.net/qmail-2-delivery.pdf

i've been meaning to re-do them as a single multi-page PDF file, and  
include a third page about how dovecot, squirrelmail, and other  
"mailbox access" programs fit into the picture. your message is the  
kick i needed, i'm working on that as we speak... the first two pages  
will be pretty much identical to what's on the web site now, and the  
third page will cover how dovecot, squirrelmail, desktop MUAs, and  
other "user accessing the contents of a mailbox" programs fit into the  
picture.

as for your diagram...

(1) maybe i'm missing something, but it doesn't make any sense to me  
at all. maybe you and i are thinking on different levels, or looking  
at things from different angles.

(2) i'm surprised djb's list actually allowed it through to begin with  
(which is why i'm including the URLs for my own PDF files, rather than  
attaching them.)


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| John M. Simpson    ---   KG4ZOW   ---    Programmer At Large |
| http://www.jms1.net/                         <jms1 at jms1.net> |
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| http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173 |
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