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

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

  • Next message: Jerry Feldman: "Re: [SLE] user input bash scripting" 
    To: suse-linux-e@suse.com
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:03:30 -0400

    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

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  • Next message: Jerry Feldman: "Re: [SLE] user input bash scripting"