Subject: tmail, sendmail and MBX

From: "Mark Elvers" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 20:55:27 +0100

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this question -

I'm moving our IMAP servers over to MBX format as the UNIX format is
painfully slow for some of our larger mailboxes.  I've recompiled imapd with
MBX as the default prototype, and I've configured sendmail to deliver via
tmail.

This all works fine, but not quite as I would expect it to.  What happens is
that sendmail invokes tmail which takes the message straight from
/var/spool/mqueue and drops them into the users home directory in a file
called INBOX (in mbx format).

Firstly, I was expecting the mbx format inbox to be stored in
/var/spool/mail/username [and the folders to be in ~/mail].  I've been using
MBX format inbox in specific peoples home directories as an interim measure
and imapd has been pulling the UNIX format mail from /var/spool/mail when
the inbox is opened.  I'd assumed that when using tmail, it would deliver in
mbx format to /var/spool/mail/username and get the inbox file out of the
home directory.  Is what I'm seeing the correct behaviour?

Secondly, I think I would prefer the INBOX to be in ~username/mail/INBOX
rather than ~username/INBOX.  I've experimented with tmail and it will
deliver to ~username/mail/INBOX with no problem.  (a) Is there a way to make
imapd see this alternative location for the INBOX, or (b) Is there a way to
get the MBX mailbox to /var/spool/mail/username? or (c) Tell imapd that the
users home directory is /export/home/username/mail rather than
/export/home/username?

My concern is that most of my users are PC based and they share their UNIX
home directory with their PC accounts.  I can just see them opening the
INBOX file in MS Word and wrecking it.  How about a totally separate home
directory when looking from the mail system?  For example,
/export/home/username is their home directory, and /private/home/username is
their home directory as far as the IMAP system is concerned.

Thanks for any help

Mark

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