RE: [SLE] Seeking help with mail-server setup

mlist_at_safenet-inc.com
Date: 08/29/05

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    To: suse-linux-e@suse.com
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:51:28 -0400

    Per Jessen [mailto:per@computer.org] replied to my confused wonderings:
    > mlist@safenet-inc.com wrote:
    > > So, I thought I'd set fetchmail to get my mail from the ISP
    > onto the tower,
    > > then use CyrusIMAP to serve my mailreader on the laptop. I
    > understand that
    > > postfix has to be www.allwww.allo.cho.chin there somewhere
    > (at least for the outgoing
    > mail being
    > > sent to the ISP's SMTP server, and probably for some other
    > part of handling
    > > - not clear on that.
    >
    > Yep, you'll need postfix (or exim or sendmail) for inbound
    > and outbound mail.

    Um. But do the terms "inbound" and "outbound" refer only to
    the directions "to-and-from the ISP"?

    So, if I'm understanding this, fetchmail grabs from ISP POP
    and drops at some standard place (or a configured place?),
    postfix grabs what fetchmail brought and feeds it to IMAP
    (Cyrus in this case), CyrusIMAP sits on it, fielding read
    and write and folder-filing requests that come from my
    laptop that's using some mailreader program, CyrusIMAP
    places any messages that my mailreader wants to send in
    a place where postfix can see it... but not
    the same place that fetchmail put the POP'ed mail... and
    postfix feeds those sent messages to the ISP's SMTP server?
    Or is there another program at the end to do the talking to
    the SMTP server?
     
    So postfix is grabbing from both directions and placing/pushing
    in both directions? I didn't quite follow that when I
    invoked YaST "Network Services > Mail Transfer Agent".

    > > By the way, I don't have static IP from my ISP (I can get
    > for an extra ten
    > > or twenty bucks per month if that will make a difference.)
    >
    > If you intend to use fetchmail, it doesn't matter.

    Ok. I didn't see where it would matter, in either direction,
    since actions are always being initiated from my location,
    not from out in the world, but while I was googling on this
    general topic, I encountered more than one mail thread in which
    somebody asked the inquirer if he had static or dynamic IP...
    as though it mattered in context. That's the trouble when
    starting something new. Every bit of info seems as important
    or relevant as every other. We can only filter out the words
    of people who don't really know or words that apply to a
    different context... after we've figured out the topic and
    become confident and competent in it.

     
    > > At 16:03 yesterday, two messages from another mailing list
    > were grabbed and
    > > put into /var/spool/mail (also /var/mail) in a file called
    > "elefino" (my ID
    > > on that computer... I'm writing from my work account "mlist" at this
    > > moment). That's the only mail I've seen that fetchmail
    > might have handled.
    > > The fetchmail log says that it has retrieved several more
    > messages in the
    > > hours since four o'clock yesterday afternoon, but I don't
    > know where they
    > > are going.
    >
    > Did you instruct fetchmail to deliver mails to postfix?

    I "instructed" whatever YaST "Network Services > Mail
    Transfer Agent" instructed. It mostly doesn't actually SAY
    what programs it is talking about, just refers to "Incoming"
    or "Outgoing" or server or host in ways that leave me
    perplexed about which leg of the operation is being config'd.
     
    > > I looked in /var/spool/postfix, and it has a nice structure
    > of directories
    > > including active, bounce, corrupt, defer, deferred, flush,
    > hold, incoming,
    > > maildrop... Half of them were created/modified in March (when this
    > > version of SuSE was released) and the rest were created
    > yesterday. They
    > > all appear empty. I have to view them as root, because of
    > the permissions.
    >
    > You can ignore those. Any mail should turn up in /var/mail/ .

    Eek! So... if postfix is so important to the whole process
    -- you seem to have said it takes inbound from fetchmail and
    outbound from CyrusIMAP -- then it doesn't even use its own
    nifty directory structure? Yup, this stuff is simple and
    straightforward all right. <g>
     
    > > Does fetchmail hand off directly to CyrusIMAP? or is it
    > Postfix that handles
    > > it between fetchmail and CyrusIMAP?
    >
    > It depends on your setup, but presumably fetchmail hands off
    > to postfix, which then
    > delivers to directories from which CyrusIMAP can serve out
    > mail to end-users.
    >
    > > Somewhere I read about port 25?
    >
    > That would be SMTP port for inbound mail.

    Inbound... I thought SMTP was what the ISP used to send
    _outbound_ mail to the internet. It was this switching
    of the meaning of "inbound/incoming" and "outbound/outgoing"
    that really helped confuse me.

    Ok... if I think about that... SMTP _inbound_ on my
    server would be... where? Where mail comes from my
    clients on its way to the ISP? Nah. Not with IMAP.
    The mail doesn't live on the client - it lives on the
    IMAP server. Oh wait... does the IMAP server have
    to use a port to get mail to postfix that is intended
    to go out to the internet? Or does it just drop its
    "outbound" messages in a directory that postfix watches
    and recognizes as "give this to the ISP"??

    Or did I have that all wrong and every POP server must
    talk to an SMTP server? Then fetchmail has the
    inbound SMTP port to get the messages from the ISP's
    POP server? A lot of this is going to make sense
    when it becomes clear what people mean by "inbound/incoming"
    and "outbound/outgoing" in every context. So far... not.

     
    > > Where do I find out?
    >
    > I would suggest reading a few howtos - there's plenty of good
    > readable material on
    > fetchmail, postfix and the whole process/setup.

    No two seem to say the same (unless one is a rip-off of
    another).
    I have read a few... don't know if they were the good ones,
    which is how I got confused about what gets used when
    and where? For example, the bit above where postfix has
    created all those nice directories and then both postfix
    and I should ignore them?

    Also, I think that some howtos might have assumed that
    the client would be coming to a POP server while others
    that it would be coming to an IMAP server, and there
    seem to be differences in the handling and differences
    in what inbound and outbound mean, depending where
    a program is in a chain and what the configuration of
    the chain is.

    I was guessing that "outbound" should always refer to
    "toward the ISP".
    So, when postfix picks up mail from
    fetchmail, that's "inbound" and is found in a different
    directory than when postfix picks up my client's replies
    from (say) CyrusIMAP? But can that second category be
    called "outbound" since it's coming IN to postfix,
    and does postfix have yet another place to put mail
    that it received from (say) IMAP and that is now
    "outbound" to the ISP?

    Is there a Howto with pictures and circles and arrows?

    If I had a working example in front of me to pick at,
    this would probably make sense, but I have to "get it"
    first before I can have a working example.

    My new setup might already be perfectly functional, and I
    just haven't found the "on" switch. :-)
    I might be leaning on the "on" switch and not even
    recognize it.

    Anyway, I'll have stuff to play with when I get home
    tongight.

    Thanks,

    Kevin

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