IMAP / WEBmail and sendmail

nOObydOO · 11-03-2009, 01:40 PM

Hi..

I'm trying out slack 13.. and are for the moment looking into sendmail and if i can make use of IMAP and WEBmail ?

Starting the imapd is OK.. "enabled" it in inetd.. all fine..

Then the next thing i notice is that i need/wish to change the

# queue directory
#O QueueDirectory=/var/spool/mqueue

so that each user can have it's own "Maildir" with the "right access".

I wish to use webmail ( Roundcube ) and imap..

Are there any solutions for this ?

Alien Bob · 11-03-2009, 02:30 PM

Please do not confuse Sendmail (which transports mail from one destination to another using the SMTP protocol) with a mailserver (using the IMAP protocol) which serves up emails from a local storage to end user email clients...

The /var/spool/mqueue is the queue directory used by Sendmail to store emails before transportto another server or final delivery into a local mailbox. Do not mess with what you do not understand.

Eric

nOObydOO · 11-03-2009, 03:11 PM

MarchHare22 · 08-23-2010, 04:23 PM

@Alien Bob

I came across this thread searching for send mail. I really feel like that was unnecessary Alien Bob. I know who you are and know you are well respected in the Slackware community but that comment was just ignorant.

Quote:

Do not mess with what you do not understand.

Tell that to Newton.

Richard Cranium · 08-23-2010, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarchHare22

@Alien Bob

I came across this thread searching for send mail. I really feel like that was unnecessary Alien Bob. I know who you are and know you are well respected in the Slackware community but that comment was just ignorant.

Tell that to Newton.

Well, that would be an example of understanding something before you mess with it. Which for engineering, is pretty effing good advice.

Alien Bob · 08-24-2010, 03:01 AM

I fail to see why that remark was ignorant. Perhaps you care to elaborate?

Eric

hughetorrance · 08-24-2010, 06:20 AM

In this case evil is in the eye of the beholder... ! after all ignorance is bliss ... Slackers are slow to take offence and quick to forgive.

Crashbox · 08-24-2010, 09:20 AM

Eric (Alien Bob) is a well respected member of the Slack community and anyone who spends any time in this LQ forum know that he is exceedingly generous with his time and advice. Being that that is true, if he says his intent wasn't malicious, I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Regarding sending/receiving email, the truth is (and I think Eric's point was) that it is not simple to set up, as it involves multiple applications which must be configured properly to work together.

My advice to the OP would be to find a good step-by-step howto and walk through it. The Sendmail website might be a good place to start...or Google...heck, I'll bet there is a guide or two in the Tutorials section of LQ. The OP should also be aware that there alternatives to what is shipped with Slackware - some of which, I'm told, are easier to config than Sendmail.

MarchHare22 · 08-25-2010, 08:32 AM

I just feel it could have been approached differently. The guy/girl came asking for help with sendmail after doing some tinkering.

I know Google, man pages, sendmail website, etc. all could have helped the guy. He never stated is initial research. But just a comment saying don't mess with it is counter intuitive. Mess with it! Do all you can! Break it! (Hopefully not production

) that's what GNU/Linux is all about IMO.

All in all, I'm only saying you didn't have to be so harsh, remember that there are newbies coming all the time who might not have as great of intuition as some of the Slackware Gods. Go easy on them. Just don't comment if it's a waste of your time discouraging him from attempting to "dive right in".

I meant no disrespect, just read it and was a asking myself why even say that last part.

NetNightmare · 08-25-2010, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarchHare22

I just feel it could have been approached differently. The guy/girl came asking for help with sendmail after doing some tinkering.

Actually to the point to sound harsh, coming to a slackware forum asking how to use imap protocol with sendmail wich is an MTA, doesn't show an high grade of tinkering from his part .... reading sendmail.org FAQ and precisely http://www.sendmail.org/faq/section4#4.19 require very basic skill.

"Do not mess with what you do not understand." to me is a very good advice , trying to put up a mail server require a good load of reading before to mess with it ......

Just my 2cp

hua · 08-27-2010, 04:42 PM

Back to the topic ...
Just to put it in order - I think you should take it step by step.

1. "I'm trying out slack 13" ... - that is one thing!
2. Configure and understand the role of sendmail in email-system is the next big step.
3. Enable IMAP and POP3, is maybe the simplest thing (until you don't want to use secured IMAP and POP3)
4. Set up the apache server where webmail can run.
5. And finally put webmail on the top of that.

I Think you should carefully explore each of these steps because each of them is a big topic separately.