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I. qmail introduction qmail is an Internet Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) for UNIX-like operating systems. It's a drop-in replacement for the Sendmail system provided with UNIX operating systems. qmail uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to exchange messages with MTA's on other systems. There are many good qmail Web resources:
Some of the advantages of qmail over vendor-provided MTA's include:
qmail-pop3d is the POP server included with qmail.
qmail-pop3d supports only maildir-format mailboxes.
Read /source/local/src/qmail-1.03/INSTALL.maildir for instructions
how to build "Maildir" structure in your $HOME.
Here's how to set up qmail to use maildir for your incoming mail:
Log into DELBRUECK and run the following commands:
% /var/qmail/bin/maildirmake $HOME/Maildir
% echo ./Maildir/ > ~/.qmail
Make sure you include the trailing slash on Maildir/.
IV. qmail forwarding mail
Sendmail uses .forward files, to allow users to control the delivery
of messages they receive. qmail uses a similar mechanism: .qmail files.
Examples:
% more .qmail
The e-mail address where to forward # Sends e-mail to a forward address
./Mailbox # and to you in the same time.
% more .qmail
The e-mail address where to forward # Sends e-mail to a forward address
./Maildir/ # and to you in the same time.
% more .qmail
The e-mail address where to forward # Redirects your mail to a forward
# address.
V. User-controlled mailing lists
You can generate "~/.qmail-GROUPNAME" in your $HOME directory
with a list of addresses, one e-mail address per line.
Then incoming mail for $USER-GROUPNAME@darwin.bu.edu will be forwarded
to each of those addresses. You should also touch ~/.qmail-GROUPNAME-owner
so that bounces come back to you rather than the original sender.
Alternative: ezmlm is an easy-to-use, high-speed modern mailing list
manager for qmail, supporting automatic subscriptions, confirmations,
archives, fully automatic bounce handling (including warnings to
subscribers saying which messages they've missed), and more.
ezmlm Home
ezmlm by D.J. Bernstein
ezmlm programs installed in delbrueck:/usr/local/bin/ directory.
You can use "ezmlm-make" to instantly set up a professional-quality
mailing list, handling subscriptions and archives automatically.
Read "ezmlm" & other man pages for details.
VI. qmail-vacation program
You can read documentation on-line at:
http://www.uni.edu/~prefect/devel/qmail-vacation/index.shtml
or read "vacation" man pages on DELBRUECK.
qmail "vacation" automatically replies to incoming mail.
Run "vacation" on our qmail server DELBRUECK without any command
line arguments. The first time you run vacation, a default reply
message will be created in ~/.vacation.msg. Once you are satisfied
with the contents of the reply message, you will be askned if you
would like to enable vacation. After your answer "yes", a default
~/.qmail file will be created:
-----------------------------------
| /usr/local/bin/vacation $USER
$HOME/Mailbox
-----------------------------------
The abobe environment variables - such as $USER & $HOME - will be
expanded to its correct value during vacation's setup phase.
These instructions tell the qmail-local mail delivery agent
to send an automatic reply to the sender of the message and
to save a copy of the message in your default mailbox.
For those of you, who already uses TMDA filter and wants to activate
the "vacation" program, the additional steps are needed, which
I'll describe a little later after the TMDA introduction.
VII. qmail duplicates elimination program
eliminate-dups - eliminate duplicate mail messages
A perl program "eliminate-dups" installed on our qmail server DELBRUECK.
You need to create appropriate dot-qmail files in your home directory
according to the /source/local/src/eliminate-dups-2.2/README file or
man pages for "eliminate-dups":
To enable eliminate-dups for the $USER, create a new dot-qmail file
called $USER/.qmail-maildir. The contents of this file should be
./Maildir/
It should be owned by $USER and have 0644 permissions.
Then add the following lines to your $USER/.qmail file
| eliminate-dups [hashfile]
&user-maildir
hashfile is the name of the ndbm hash file that is used to store the
message checksums. The default name is .maildups.
It should be owned by $USER and have 0644 permissions.
VIII. Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA)
TMDA is an open source software application designed to significantly
reduce the amount of spam (Internet junk-mail) you receive.
TMDA can also be used as a general purpose local mail delivery agent
to filter, sort, deliver and dispose of incoming mail.
Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA)
TMDA Configuration Overview
TMDA Filter Specification
TMDA web interface
TMDA installation is very simple and takes a few minutes:
Open your session on our qmail server DELBRUECK
cd $HOME
cp /source/local/share/TMDA/tmda-example-kit.tar.gz .
zcat tmda-example-kit.tar.gz | tar xvf -
tmda-keygen
.......................
echo "the_above_new_key" > .tmda/crypt_key
chmod 600 .tmda/crypt_key .tmda/config
Post installation steps:
------------------------
Manually modify the .tmda/config & ./tmda/filters/incoming
to replace $HOME & $USER with a real paths:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
delbrueck% cd ~/.tmda
delbrueck% more config
#
CONFIRM_APPEND = "/home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/lists/confirmed"
LOGFILE_DEBUG = "/home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/logs/tmda.debug"
LOGFILE_INCOMING = "/home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/logs/tmda.incoming"
delbrueck% cd ~/.tmda/filters
delbrueck% more incoming
from-file /home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/lists/rejected drop
from-file /home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/lists/accepted accept
from-file /home/LOGINNAME/.tmda/lists/confirmed accept
---------------------------------------------------------------------
".qmail-tmda-default" and ".qmail-default" would have to be changed
for Maildir users:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|preline /usr/local/tmda/bin/tmda-filter
./Maildir/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Then test by mailing to $USER-tmda@darwin.bu.edu and when satisfied,
cd $HOME
mv .qmail-tmda .qmail
ln -s .qmail .qmail-default
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TMDA's Whitelist-centric Strategy ``Deny everything that is not explicitly
allowed''
The way TMDA frustrates incoming junk-mail is simple yet extremely
effective. You maintain a "whitelist" of trusted contacts which are allowed
directly into your mailbox. In our configuration the accepted "whitelist" is
$HOME/.tmda/lists/accepted list.
Messages from unknown senders are held in a pending queue until they respond
to a one-time confirmation request or "challenge" sent by TMDA. Once they
respond to the confirmation, their original message is deemed legitimate and
is delivered to you. TMDA then adds their address to your whitelist (In our
configuration the confirmed "whitelist" is $HOME/.tmda/lists/confirmed list)
so they won't have to confirm future messages.
This methodology has the advantage of being very selective about what
it allows in, while at the same time permitting legitimate, but previously
unknown senders to reach you.
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