Subject: Re: imap-utils

From: "Thomas Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 12:38:34 -0700 (MST)

> On Wed, 19 May 2004, Thomas Smith wrote:
>> At the risk of being redundant, imap-utils *will* work for imap-2001a
>
> Yes
>
>> and
>> is *required* as it's not bundled with this version of UW IMAP?
>
> No.  You can use the modern programs (such as mailutil).

How do I get mailutil seperate from UW IMAP? I've looked at the FTP site
and can only find imap-utils.

>> Do newer versions of UW-IMAP require modifying the CREATEPROTO=
>> variable in the osdeps Makefile? (This is suggested in the IMAP-FAQ.)
>
> If you want a different default for newly-created mailboxes, yes.

Does this mean that mbx-formatted mailboxes will have to be manually
enabled for each user account that's created if this value does not
default to mbx?

Is there a way to set the default in some other way? (I don't have access
to the source from my hosting provider--see below for more info on this.)

>> (It may seem odd that I'm using an older version of UW IMAP. Fact is,
>> I'm using a hosting provider running Ensim WEBppliance Pro on Redhat
>> 7.3. They're currently testing more current versions of Ensim on
>> Fedora Core 1--hopefully they'll roll it out soon as it uses more
>> current versions of UW IMAP.)
>
> Why can't you just install an updated version from the UW FTP server?

Ensim uses a proprietary API that enables UW IMAP to chroot to a domains'
"root" directory. (Every domain has its own chroot environment. Their
setup thus enables every domain to have their own /etc/passwd, /etc/group,
/etc/procmailrc, and so on.)

My concern is twofold:

1) In order to upgrade their UW IMAP install, I'd have to install the new
RPMs on the host server (which is dedicated to me), update existing
domains' chroot environments, and update the template filesystem so that
the new, current UW IMAP binaries are copied and/or hardlinked to newly
created domains.

2) Some users have experienced problems after enabling maildir support on
their accounts. The problems typically occurred after Ensim upgrades
and/or updates and, in most cases, caused wierd mail problems such as the
server no longer understood maildirs and started writing files to mbox.
This isn't a good senerio for a production environment.

My goal is to enable a more efficient mailbox protocol than mbox while
making as few server modifications as possible. I have yet to implement
the mbx protocol so I'm not certain what changes need to be made to an
account to enable it. It appears to me that there are only a couple,
though.

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 15:10:02 -0700 (PDT)

> and can only find imap-utils.

mailutil is bundled with the UW IMAP toolkit.

Note that the old imap-utils distribution required the UW IMAP toolkit; it 
would not build without it.

> enabled for each user account that's created if this value does not

If the software is built in its default configuration, the default format 
for newly-created mailboxes is traditional UNIX format and not mbx.  This 
is only if you do not specify a format when creating the mailbox.  You can 
always force a format by specifying it, e.g.
 	mailutil create #driver.mbx/example
which will create an mbx-format mailbox named "example".

Note that the #driver.mbx/ prefix is only used when creating the mailbox, 
and not when accessing it.

> /etc/procmailrc, and so on.)

It sounds like you have to look to Ensim for support, since they have 
apparently modified the software and it seems that you need those 
modifications (so switching to unmodified UW distributions is probably not 
an option).

I don't know what the Ensim customizations are; and I generally advise 
people to upgrade to the current UW distribution to make sure we are on 
the same wavelength.

If all you want to do is just get mailutil installed without tampering 
with your existing Ensim software, I would suggest getting a copy of 
unmodified UW IMAP to build mailutil, and once you get a mailutil binary 
you can toss out everything else.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

---

From: "Thomas Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 17:03:40 -0700 (MST)

>> Ensim uses a proprietary API that enables UW IMAP to chroot to a
>> domains' "root" directory. (Every domain has its own chroot
>> environment. Their setup thus enables every domain to have their own
>> /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/procmailrc, and so on.)
>
> modifications (so switching to unmodified UW distributions is probably
> not  an option).
>

I've looked into this. It is possible to do--it just takes some work. I
may just write a howto so users with large, slow mboxes (or those who rely
heavliy on IMAP-based webmail) can convert to the mbx format themselves
and create new mbx mailboxes--if they choose.

>  you can toss out everything else.

This should be easy enough. I've already got the current UW IMAP installed
on a server that I'd planned on using for testing.

I do have one question here, though. There are some minor library
differences between RH 7.3 and current Linux distros--mailutil requires
some of the newer libraries. I've looked through the BUILD and CONFIG docs
and haven't found a way to build a statically linked mailutil--can you
suggest a way to do this?

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 17:40:27 -0700 (PDT)

On Sun, 23 May 2004, Thomas Smith wrote:
> I've looked through the BUILD and CONFIG docs

-static is what normally is needed for the Linux linker, so you would do 
something like:
 	make lrh EXTRALDFLAGS=-static

-- Mark --

---

From: "Thomas Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 14:25:07 -0700 (MST)

>  	make lrh EXTRALDFLAGS=-static

This worked perfectly! Thanks.