Re: Question about creating a mail server

On Mon, 28 May 2007 17:14:19 -0400, Randy Yates wrote:

<snip>


Is there a good IMAP server for linux?

Yes there are several.

Popular ones include:
Dovecot
Cyrus
University of Washington (less popular)

I'm sure there are others, but at least one of these, preferably one of
the first two should be available via your distribution's standard
repositories or install disk.

One thing to note about IMAP, is that there are two ways in which it can
store messages on the server.

mbox format. All of the messages in a "folder" are stored in one large
file concatenated together. You can't have folders and messages within a
folder. It is faster for some operations, (searching etc) and slower for
others, (deleting etc). It can have memory issues with large folders.

maildir format. Each message is stored as a separate file. You can have
folders and messages in a folder. This is more intuitive for many users.
It has the reverse performance issues of mbox. This tends to be the more
popular choice.

Overall mbox tends to be slightly simpler to setup (IME), but I think the
extra effort required for maildir is worth it.

You will want to determine which type of setup you want before you setup
your MTA / IMAP servers. AFAIK UW IMAP server doesn't support maildir,
but both Dovecot and Cyrus do.

--
Regards,
David Bailey
david _AT_ bailey dot id dot au
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Folders
    ... folders are on my machine rather than the IMAP server? ... setup to put all the folders on the server? ... For each folder whose message you want to move, ... If the target folder doesn't already exist, ...
    (comp.mail.pine)
  • Re: question on mail (sendmail, dovecot, fetchmail)
    ... They'll all get dictionary spam. ... the folder 'sent' is not there. ... It's usually up to the client as to how it deals with keeping copies of ... rather than a folder on the IMAP server. ...
    (Fedora)
  • IMAP server and client recommendations?
    ... (Microsoft Outlook "Personal Folders") ... alternative email client lately. ... copy their mail to that folder, then do the reverse inside a client that ... Is it feasible to use the IMAP server as a mail storage solution like ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: error message when trying todelete messages
    ... I can't do much with a partial error message. ... refreshing your folder list to synchronize with the IMAP server. ... Header download for the 'Deleted Items' folder did not complete. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail)
  • RE: error message when trying todelete messages
    ... failed, mailbox is full. ... refreshing your folder list to synchronize with the IMAP server. ... Header download for the 'Deleted Items' folder did not complete. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail)