[Gllug] Mail servers on FC4

[Anthony Newman]

Pip wrote:
<snip>
>>If you are supporting, say, 2000 users, go and get familiar with Exim's 
>>config. It can be set up to authenticate against whatever you like, and 
>>deliver wherever you want in a variety of formats given the correct 
>>highly verbose and bracket-ridden incantations, so virtual users are no 
>>problem.
> 
> 
> The general impression I got, though, was that it doesn't run as a pop server.

Oh, absolutely, but having SMTP and POP3 solutions that co-exist happily 
(read "use the same user/authentication systems" and "store mail in 
compatible formats") is your way to Nirvana. You do need to deliver mail 
for people to collect, after all :)

<snip>


> The Fine Manual for exim looks good. But very, very substantial, and aimed at 
> a full understanding of what's going on rather than the short, simple, 
> stupidity-proof brief I was hoping for. 

It is rather *ahem* comprehensive, but well written. If you know what 
you want to achieve it's great, but if you want a quick solution it's 
probably not a great help initially. I'd have a play if you've got a 
spare machine to test on, you'll soon get into it :)


<goto end if granny/egg-sucking Exim thoughts not required>

If you're after virtual "hosting", I'd say you'll first need to decide 
on a user authentication backend for your POP3 server that exim can also 
use to determine valid users and filesystem targets for mail delivery, 
then probably consult the (again quite good) install documentation to 
find out what to change in the Makefile to get the right bits compiled 
in. (If you're feeling keen it can use LDAP, so you can tie it into a 
common user auth framework with your Samba server....)

Compiling from source is probably the best bet rather than using a 
distro package which might not have much available other than a simple 
local mbox delivery type setup, plus you get to see what sort of 
features are available to spur your imagination :)  Then it's time to 
find out about getting a router (of the Exim rather than the IP variety) 
to work with your chosen auth backend so mail gets accepted/rejected as 
required and delivered to the right place.

Ant
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