[imp] Outgoing mail

Rick Stevens rstevens@publichost.com
Fri, 22 Dec 2000 13:18:59 -0800


Chuck Hagenbuch wrote:

> Quoting Rick Romero <rick@valeoinc.com>:
> 
> 
>> What you're saying sounds a bit like how Pegasus Mail is 
>> structured..
> 
> 
> ... but what you go on to describe diverges significantly from what I had in 
> mind, so I must have not done a very good job explaining myself.
> 
> c-client, the library that php uses for IMAP, POP, and NNTP calls, supports 
> opening local files in any format that it supports (mbox, mbx probably, etc.). 
> So, if we had a custom MDA to deliver to local files, we could have IMP support 
> local files with very few changes, because we'd be using the _same_ imap_* 
> calls to access the mailboxes. The custom MDA would be needed because IMP would 
> have to be running as a user that could write to the mailbox files.

Well, my current MDA is an intermediate (read that as "bodged")
version.  This release uses procmail and a custom recipe to
actually stuff the messages into the appropriate mailbox.  That
being said, I do, however, plan to add the actual mailbox delivery
stuff to the MDA.  I may do it over the holidays (but don't count
on it--I'm gonna be busy).

Keep in mind this version of the MDA does the following functions:

	forwarding (up to 20 forwarding addresses, could be more)
	autoresponder
	mailbox delivery (soon)
	mailing list (Majordomo-style)

Just what actions are taken regarding a message are driven by
attributes contained in the virtual user's LDAP entry.  It runs
setuid() and setgid() to mail, but is quite secure (there are no
possible buffer overruns or other little gotchas--I'm paranoid).  It
was designed to run with sendmail, but should have no problems running
with other MTAs--provided they use external MDAs.

As to mailbox format (and assuming my people will let this out under
GPL), which mailbox formats would you like to see supported?  "mbox"
is a given.
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- Rick Stevens, CTO, PublicHost, Inc.        rstevens@publichost.com -
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-         C program run. C program crash. C programmer quit.         -
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