322 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
322 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
From: vince@victrola.wa.com (Vince Skahan)
|
|
Reply-To: vince@victrola.wa.com (Vince Skahan)
|
|
Followup-To: poster
|
|
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.answers,news.answers
|
|
Subject: Linux Electronic Mail HOWTO
|
|
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
|
|
|
|
Archive-name: linux/howto/mail
|
|
Last-modified: 31 August 1993
|
|
|
|
The Linux Electronic Mail HOWTO
|
|
by Vince Skahan, <vince@victrola.wa.com>
|
|
v1.1, Last Modified 31 August 1993
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
This document describes the setup and care+feeding of Electronic Mail
|
|
(e-mail) under Linux.
|
|
|
|
You need to read this if you plan to communicate locally or to remote sites
|
|
via electronic mail.
|
|
|
|
You probably do *not* need to read this document if don't exchange
|
|
electronic mail with other users on your system or with other sites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
0. Introduction
|
|
|
|
The intent of this document is to answer some of the questions and
|
|
comments that appear to meet the definition of 'frequently asked
|
|
questions' about e-mail software under Linux.
|
|
|
|
This document and the corresponding UUCP and News 'HOWTO' documents
|
|
collectively supersede the UUCP-NEWS-MAIL-FAQ that has previously
|
|
been posted to comp.os.linux.announce.
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.1 New versions of this document
|
|
|
|
New versions of this document will be periodically posted to
|
|
comp.os.linux.announce, comp.answers, and news.answers. They will
|
|
also be added to the various anonymous ftp sites who archive such
|
|
information including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.2 Feedback
|
|
|
|
I am interested in any feedback, positive or negative, regarding
|
|
the content of this document via e-mail. Definitely contact me if
|
|
you find errors or obvious omissions.
|
|
|
|
I read, but do not necessarily respond to, all e-mail I receive.
|
|
Requests for enhancements will be considered and acted upon based on
|
|
that day's combination of available time, merit of the request, and
|
|
daily blood pressure :-)
|
|
|
|
Flames will quietly go to /dev/null so don't bother.
|
|
|
|
Feedback concerning the actual format of the document should go to
|
|
the HOWTO coordinator - Matt Welsh (mdw@sunsite.unc.edu).
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.3 Other sources of information
|
|
|
|
USENET:
|
|
=======
|
|
comp.mail.elm the ELM mail system.
|
|
comp.mail.mh The Rand Message Handling system.
|
|
comp.mail.mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
|
|
comp.mail.misc General discussions about computer mail.
|
|
comp.mail.multi-media Multimedia Mail.
|
|
comp.mail.mush The Mail User's Shell (MUSH).
|
|
comp.mail.sendmail the BSD sendmail agent.
|
|
comp.mail.uucp Mail in the uucp environment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mailing Lists:
|
|
==============
|
|
|
|
There is a smail-3.1 mailing list.
|
|
|
|
To join (or get off) the list, send mail to
|
|
smail3-users-request@cs.athabascau.ca
|
|
|
|
make sure that you include the address at which you want to receive
|
|
mail in the text of the message.
|
|
|
|
To send a message to the list, send it to
|
|
smail3-users@cs.athabascau.ca.
|
|
|
|
Books:
|
|
======
|
|
|
|
The following is a non-inclusive set of books that will help...
|
|
|
|
'Managing UUCP and USENET' from O'Reilly and Associates is in my
|
|
opinion the best book out there for figuring out the programs and
|
|
protocols involved in being a USENET site.
|
|
|
|
'Unix Communications' from The Waite Group contains a nice
|
|
description of all the pieces (and more) and how they fit together.
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.4 Where *NOT* to look for help
|
|
|
|
There is nothing 'special' about configuring and running mail under
|
|
Linux (any more). Accordingly, you almost certainly do *NOT* want
|
|
to be posting generic mail-related questions to the comp.os.linux.*
|
|
newsgroups.
|
|
|
|
Unless your posting is truly Linux-specific (ie, "please tell me
|
|
what routers are already compiled into the SLS1.03 version of
|
|
smail3.1.28") you should be asking your questions in one of the
|
|
newsgroups or mailing lists referenced above.
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.0 Hardware Requirements
|
|
|
|
There are no specific hardware requirements for mail under Linux.
|
|
|
|
You'll need some sort of 'transport' software to connect to remote
|
|
systems, which means either tcp-ip or uucp. This could mean that
|
|
you need a modem or ethernet card (depending on your setup).
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.0 Getting the software
|
|
|
|
In general, I grab my sources from ftp.uu.net and the other fine
|
|
archive sites on Internet. In addition, Linux-specific binary ports
|
|
are found in the SLS distrbution and on the usual Linux anonymous
|
|
ftp sites (sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu in particular).
|
|
|
|
The newspak-1.7.tar.z distribution contains config files and readme
|
|
files related to building uucp, news, and mail software under Linux
|
|
from the various freely-available sources. It can usually be found
|
|
on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory /pub/Linux/system/Mail.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.0 Mail 'Transport Agents'
|
|
|
|
This section contains information related to 'transport agents',
|
|
which means the underlying software that connects your local system
|
|
to remote systems.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.1 Smail v3.1
|
|
|
|
Smail3.1 seems to be a de-facto standard transport agent for uucp-only
|
|
sites and for some smtp sites. It compiles without patching from
|
|
the sources. In addition, smail is provided in binary form in the
|
|
SLS distribution of Linux.
|
|
|
|
The newspak distribution contains config files for smail3.1.28 under
|
|
Linux that you can use to start with.
|
|
|
|
If you're building smail from sources, you need to have
|
|
CASE_NO_NEWLINES=true in your os/linux file.
|
|
|
|
For a uucp-only system that has a MX-record and that wants a
|
|
domainized header (who goes through a smart-host for everything),
|
|
these are the entire config files you'll need:
|
|
|
|
replace 'subdomain.domain' with your domain name
|
|
replace 'myhostname' with you un-domainized hostname
|
|
replace 'my_uucp_neighbor' with the uucp name of your upstream site
|
|
|
|
#-------- /usr/local/lib/smail/config -----------------
|
|
#
|
|
# domains we belong to
|
|
visible_domain=subdomain.domain:uucp
|
|
#
|
|
# who we're known as (fully-qualified-site-name)
|
|
visible_name=myhostname.subdomain.domain
|
|
#
|
|
# who we go through
|
|
smart_path=my_uucp_neighbor
|
|
#
|
|
#---------- /usr/local/lib/smail/paths --------------
|
|
#
|
|
# we're a domainized site, make sure we accept mail to both names
|
|
myhostname %s
|
|
myhostname.subdomain.domain %s
|
|
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
To run smail as a smtp daemon, add the following to /etc/inetd.conf:
|
|
smtp stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/smtpd smtpd
|
|
|
|
Outgoing mail gets sent automatically, when using elm. If your
|
|
internet link is down when you send mail, then the mail sits in
|
|
'/usr/spool/smail/input'. When the link next comes up, 'runq' is
|
|
run which causes the mail to be sent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.2 Sendmail+IDA
|
|
|
|
There is a nice binary distribution of sendmail5.65c+IDA on sunsite
|
|
in pub/Linux/system/Mail that I highly recommend. I run a uucp-only
|
|
site and use sendmail5.65c+IDA instead of smail3.1.28 due to the
|
|
incredible ease of use.
|
|
|
|
To install it...
|
|
- you'll probably want to remove (or rename) all the files from
|
|
smail (see the /install/installed directory if you are SLS)
|
|
to be safe.
|
|
- cd to / then 'gunzip -c sendmail5.65c+IDA.tpz | tar xvf -'
|
|
- cd to /usr/local/src/sendmail5.65c+IDA/ida/cf and copy the example
|
|
local.m4 file to 'yourhostname.m4'. Edit out the distributed
|
|
hostname, aliases, and smarthost and put in the correct one
|
|
for your site. The default file is for a uucp-only site
|
|
who has domainized headers. Then 'make yourhostname.cf'
|
|
and move the resulting file to /etc/sendmail.cf
|
|
- if you are uucp-only, you do *NOT* need to create any of the
|
|
tables mentioned in the README.linux file. Just edit
|
|
the .m4 file, make sendmail.cf, and start testing it.
|
|
- if you're uucp-only and you talk to sites in addition to your
|
|
'smart-host', you'll need to add uucpxtable entries for
|
|
each (or mail to them will also go through the smart host)
|
|
and run dbm against the revised uucpxtable.
|
|
- if you change your .cf file, be sure to refreeze your config
|
|
with /usr/lib/sendmail -bz to make the changes take effect.
|
|
|
|
Another nice thing is that if you have mail.debug set and you
|
|
run syslogd, your incoming and outgoing mail messages will get
|
|
logged. See the /etc/syslog.conf file for details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.3 Other 'transport agents'
|
|
|
|
The following also are known to run under Linux. Consult
|
|
'archie' for details regarding how to find them...
|
|
|
|
smail2.5 - very simple UUCP-based smail
|
|
sendmail8.5 - the newest non-IDA sendmail from Berkeley
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.0 Mail 'User Agents'
|
|
|
|
This section contains information related to 'user agents', which
|
|
means the software the user sees and uses. This software relies on
|
|
the 'transport agents' mentioned above.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.1 Elm
|
|
|
|
Elm compiles, installs, and runs flawlessly under Linux. For more
|
|
information, see the elm sources and installation instructions.
|
|
|
|
The only thing to know is that Elm's Configure script incorrectly
|
|
sets the 'ranlib' variable in config.sh. When Configure gives you
|
|
the chance to edit config.sh before proceeding, please do so and
|
|
set "ranlib='ranlib'" or the binaries will compile but not link.
|
|
|
|
Elm and filter need to be mode 2755 (group mail) with
|
|
/usr/spool/mail mode 775 and group mail.
|
|
|
|
If you use a binary distribution like the one in SLS, you'll need
|
|
to create a /usr/local/lib/elm/elm.rc file to override the compiled-in
|
|
hostname and domain information:
|
|
|
|
replace 'subdomain.domain' with your domain name
|
|
replace 'myhostname' with you un-domainized hostname
|
|
replace 'my_uucp_neighbor' with the uucp name of your upstream site
|
|
|
|
#---------- /usr/local/lib/elm/elm.rc ------------------
|
|
#
|
|
# this is the unqualified hostname
|
|
hostname = myhostname
|
|
#
|
|
# this is the local domain
|
|
hostdomain = subdomain.domain
|
|
#
|
|
# this is the fully qualified hostname
|
|
hostfullname = myhostname.subdomain.domain
|
|
#
|
|
#--------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
One thing you want to be aware of is that if you have Elm compiled
|
|
to be MIME-able, you need metamail installed and in your path or
|
|
Elm will not be able to read MIME mail you've received.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.2 Mailx
|
|
|
|
There is a fine binary implementation of mailx located on the various
|
|
Linux archive sites. Make sure you grab version 5.3b or later since
|
|
there are security problems in v5.3a.
|
|
|
|
The only potential problem I'm aware of is that it seems to be
|
|
compiled in a way that requires /usr/lib/smail rather than
|
|
/usr/lib/sendmail as a transport agent. You probably need a link
|
|
if you run sendmail on your system.
|
|
|
|
I strongly recommend removing the old 'edmail' stuff from SLS
|
|
and replacing it with mailx. This is rumored to be done already
|
|
in the current SLS.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.3 Other user agents
|
|
|
|
The following also are known to run under Linux. Consult
|
|
'archie' for details regarding how to find them...
|
|
|
|
Pine - from the Univ. of Washington
|
|
Metamail - allows MIME support
|
|
mh - yet another way to handle mail
|
|
deliver - file/process mail based on rules
|
|
procmail - file/process mail based on rules
|
|
Majordomo - manages e-mail lists
|
|
Mserv - provide files-by-mail
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.0 Acknowledgements
|
|
|
|
The following people have helped in the assembly of the information
|
|
(and experience) that helped make this document possible:
|
|
|
|
Steve Robbins, Ian Kluft, Rich Braun, Ian Jackson,
|
|
Syd Weinstein, Ralf Sauther, Martin White, Matt Welsh
|
|
|
|
If I forgot anybody, my apologies...
|
|
|
|
|