The one big problem with qmail is the humongous mess it is. There are god knows how many versions out there, each with its own set of instructions and most of them are very old.

I am trying to install and run the default package in Debian 9. It has installed the following packages:

daemontools fastforward procmail qmail-run qmail-uids-gids runit ucspi-tcp

Now, it's not running. Maybe the bigger problem is that supervise isn't running either. All the instructions I have collected (including a VERY old installation script I made myself in 2004) include a ridiculousy long list of post-installation command lines, which I will never understand why they were not automated/included in the default installation in the first place. I will never understand why qmail has always had to be such an Ikea/Revell kit rather than a finished product.

Now, all the instructions I have often refer to /var/qmail/control/ which doesn't exist in the Debian package installation. And I don't know what else is different about it. I don't know which of all those endless post-installation command lines still have to be run or not, and if they will require any changes. Is that documented somewhere? The official Debian documentation clearly assumes you know qmail inside out and thus is not clear on many steps of the ordeal. Any guidance I can get here will be very appreciated.

TIA

Hi lucmove,

I would suggest to start reading the qmail documentation here.

Regards

I am VERY familiar with that. I have read that half a dozen times over the course of many years. But the Debian package is different than that. Every "distro" of qmail is a little different from that. There are pitfalls all over the place.

I think that apart installation, the qmail configuration is quite the same, i.e. you need to fill /var/qmail/control with the various needed config files (see this)

1 members found this post helpful.

I am already familiar with that page too. I've had a copy in my HD for two weeks.

Thank you for telling me to google it. I don't know what I would do without your help.

This is my go-to for qmail installation.
Read it all, probably several times. Nearly everything one needs to know and do is there.

This is the author's site, for when one needs to go to the "source"

HTH

Edit: If you have a specific question about something qmail, please ask it. We'd be happy to help.
You are getting the responses you are because you haven't posted a specific question. We can't provide much help for "Now, it's not running. Maybe the bigger problem is that supervise isn't running either"

I, for one, am not interested in debugging the debian qmail "package" -- Read and understand what J.M. Simpson and D.J. Bernstein have written if you're going to use qmail.

What is different/specific about the Debian package and what post-installation command lines have to be run or not in its specific case is a pretty specific question... to anyone who wants to help rather than discredit the original poster (me) because yo-we-enforce-standards-around-here-mate. If you are "not interested" than it is my opinion that you should just very simply not participate in the thread. That's what I do about more than 99% of the threads that get posted in the "Zero Reply" section (rather because I unable to answer than not interested in helping but whatever), and I can assure you it's not a painful effort. It is quite the opposite. Puffing one's chest then judging and sternly lecturing people has absolutely become the most popular sport of all time, easily surpassing soccer, cricket, maybe even sex, but I get no value from that sport so I kindly ask that you go practice it with someone else. What you're doing to me is not consensual.

Point taken.
The answer can be found by comparing what the Debian package does with what DJB documented.

Have you looked in /usr/share/doc/qmail/ ?

I have solved my problems this way:

Following advice on this page, I ran these commands:

I'm not sure that was necessary, but I did it.

Then I managed to start supervise from /etc/rc.local:

Then supervise ran, but with these errors:

After some investigation, I fixed it with this command:

Now qmail runs fine and delivers mail.

Maybe the last line and the rc.local trigger was all that was missing. Who knows? It's solved.