RE: [SLE] Seeking help with mail-server setup
I'm using Ulf's message below, but this is also a reply to Sandy Drobic (who said some of the same things and added further clarification). Ulf Rasch [mailto:u.rasch@seppelec.com] replied:
Hi Kevin,
In general, YAST may help you in configuring your system but not in understanding how things work. Have a look at the programs and their documentation involved instead!!! In your case fetchmail IMAP (cyrus, etc.) postfix ( if needed at all )
[...]
You can tell fetchmail to deliver directly to IMAP http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/fetchmail-man.html#2 That way you wouldn't need postfix for inbound mail.
[...]
Cyrus IMAP is not involved in _outbound_ mail. Outbound mail is send from your email program (KMail, Thunderbird, etc.) when you press the send button. [...] Better may be not to involve postfix and let your email program send mail directly to your ISP. That way you have to set up on program less.
I am not trying to say you shouldn't use postfix. My experience is, best to keep things simple. The fewer programs involved the better.
That is so cool! I started off with the assumptions about needing postfix (after I learned that it is a more modern replacement for sendmail) because that's what I got from my various reading. One assumption leads to another. I then asked a question on a local LUG list, and got answers that explained a lot, but which fed my overly grandiose pre-conceptions and left big holes. I didn't want to come to the list barehanded, so I did some reading first, and the reading that I did seems to have led me to excess assumptions. So, NOW if I'm understanding, I should probably ignore YaST and just config two programs directly, because YaST has bigger assumptions than the simple setup that I desire. So-o-o-o-o... ISP has mail in box. Fetchmail goes and gets it and gives it to CyrusIMAP, which holds it forever. CyrusIMAP responds to instructions from the Client (my mail program on my other PC) via IMAP protocol, to read, delete, filter, sort into folders... and that's all. My mail reader (on the laptop) does two things: - remotely views and manipulates incoming and older messages that live on the server PC, controlled by Cyrus - directly sends outgoing mail to the ISP's SMTP server So, basically with this stripped-down version, I'll have almost the arrangement that I had before (with mail reader going direct to ISP for both receiving and sending), but I'll insert an archive and handler (IMAP on the new server) into the incoming leg of my mail activity, while the outgoing leg will be exactly as before. ISP sees no change. What I gain is what I want - the mail repository is local on my network, but no longer "local" on the PC that reads the mail (which might be booting either Mac OS X or Linux or which might be another PC entirely sometimes). A remaining question: I'm far away from my Linux PC right now, but does IMAP not handle "sent mail" folders? I'm concerned that that would be bypassed if I go directly from laptop to ISP, and I would not have archived sent-mail on the server. If that's the case, I guess I can live with "manually" managing Sent Mail archive on the laptop and just copying over to the server at intervals. The trade-off in simplicity is worth it. I may have to go home early just to try this. :-) [in my best Montgomery Burns voice] "E-e-exxcellent" Thank you both. I feel that I have a much better grasp of it now -- especially of what I _don't_ need. To be confirmed, of course. Kevin The information contained in this electronic mail transmission may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer without copying or disclosing it.
On Monday 29 August 2005 20:03, mlist@safenet-inc.com wrote:
I'm using Ulf's message below, but this is also a reply to Sandy Drobic (who said some of the same things and added further clarification).
Ulf Rasch [mailto:u.rasch@seppelec.com] replied:
Hi Kevin,
In general, YAST may help you in configuring your system but not in understanding how things work. Have a look at the programs and their documentation involved instead!!! In your case fetchmail IMAP (cyrus, etc.) postfix ( if needed at all )
[...]
Hi Guys,
I have spent my time on sendmail, and procmail,
What I did was setup sendmail (sendmail.mc) and then fired up qpopper
Firstly I compile sendmail, then rpm -e postfix. (personal preference of
course)
then install qpopper and start it in xinetd services.
If you are really stuck, try using webmin, you can get the rpms from
www.webmin.org , it installs perfectly on suse, it also downloads usermin and
spam assissin for you, (quite nice). Its also fully compatible with postfix
if you want to use the suse default mail server,
Webmin won't configure you server options for you, but it has a nice
sendmail.mc editor. Which is why I like it. You will still need to read up on
things such as making the server public, masquerading domains, and hosting
multiple domains.
There is a ton of websites, but this one is my favorite because it is so
simply layed out..
http://66.249.93.104/linux?q=cache:kzyeavKoWH4J:www.linuxselfhelp.com/quick/sendmail.html+sendmail+domain+relay&hl=en
It doesn't have all the answers but it gets you going and once it is running
in it simplest form then start adding the features you need, such as
antivirus and spam control and what ever else you like,
here is a copy of my sendmail.mc
Just change what applies to you network and fire up sendamail
Good luck
===================
divert(-1)
# Copyright (c) 1997-1999,2000 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany.
# Author: Florian La Roche
# Werner Fink
mlist@safenet-inc.com wrote:
I started off with the assumptions about needing postfix (after I learned that it is a more modern replacement for sendmail) because that's what I got from my various reading. One assumption leads to another. I then asked a question on a local LUG list, and got answers that explained a lot, but which fed my overly grandiose pre-conceptions and left big holes.
Postfix is far easier to configure than sendmail. That was one of the main goals of postfix, to be easy to configure. Postfix would be recommended, if you want to have more comfort like automatic filtering of all mails for spam and virii, a web interface for your mailserver etc.
I didn't want to come to the list barehanded, so I did some reading first, and the reading that I did seems to have led me to excess assumptions.
So, NOW if I'm understanding, I should probably ignore YaST and just config two programs directly, because YaST has bigger assumptions than the simple setup that I desire. So-o-o-o-o...
Provided you don't want the options above, yes, you should configure the services manually.
ISP has mail in box. Fetchmail goes and gets it and gives it to CyrusIMAP, which holds it forever. CyrusIMAP responds to instructions from the Client (my mail program on my other PC) via IMAP protocol, to read, delete, filter, sort into folders... and that's all.
Correct. Though the filtering is done by the client program when you connect to the Cyrus Imap server. It is possible to filter the mail directly on the server with sieve, a filter language included in Cyrus. I do it that way, cause otherwise I would get a HUGE inbox with all the mails of mailing lists I subscribed to, when I log in via the web interface. Sieve takes care of sorting all my mails that can be sorted automatically into the correct folders.
My mail reader (on the laptop) does two things: - remotely views and manipulates incoming and older messages that live on the server PC, controlled by Cyrus - directly sends outgoing mail to the ISP's SMTP server
So, basically with this stripped-down version, I'll have almost the arrangement that I had before (with mail reader going direct to ISP for both receiving and sending), but I'll insert an archive and handler (IMAP on the new server) into the incoming leg of my mail activity, while the outgoing leg will be exactly as before. ISP sees no change.
The ISP does indeed see no change, but your mail client is seeing the mails on your local server. Outbound there is no change.
What I gain is what I want - the mail repository is local on my network, but no longer "local" on the PC that reads the mail (which might be booting either Mac OS X or Linux or which might be another PC entirely sometimes).
Correct, not included in this scenario are the filter rules (SIEVE!), and the address book. But all your Mails will stay on your server, regardless which mail client you use.
A remaining question: I'm far away from my Linux PC right now, but does IMAP not handle "sent mail" folders? I'm concerned that that would be bypassed if I go directly from laptop to ISP, and I would not have archived sent-mail on the server.
No, the "Sent"-Folder is included in the IMAP folders.
If that's the case, I guess I can live with "manually" managing Sent Mail archive on the laptop and just copying over to the server at intervals. The trade-off in simplicity is worth it.
I may have to go home early just to try this. :-)
Try to set up Cyrus first and set up mail accounts with cyradm.
[in my best Montgomery Burns voice] "E-e-exxcellent"
Thank you both. I feel that I have a much better grasp of it now -- especially of what I _don't_ need. To be confirmed, of course.
Learn a bit every day... (^-^) Sandy
participants (3)
-
Chadley Wilson -
mlist＠safenet-inc.com -
Sandy Drobic