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QMail - The Sendmail Replacement

1. Introduction
2. DOTQM
3. QMLOCK
4. Other QMail Tools

qmail is a sendmail replacement which is very stable and secure:

QMail.Org Main site

QMail-1.03 Man Pages local copy

All projects we developed we use qmail solely, it takes 2-3hrs the first time to set it up, but it's worth once you did it, we recommend to read the MAN pages carefully; since qmail is implemented in the light of modularity and security, (e.g. qmail doesn't accept group/world writable .qmail-files) so an aware system-admin is required to install and use it.

Especially when you are web-hosting ISP, qmail makes virtual hosting quite easy, and no longer editing cryptic sendmail config files.

QMail 2. DOTQM

dotqm is a small perl-script which helps to maintain dot-qmail files (.qmail-*). One central file (with possibility to include others) you control all actions. Since qmail is ideal for virtual hosting, one real account handles an entire domain then dotqm is very useful.

Download

dotqm the perl-source $MyVersion: 0.001 - Wed Jan 26 10:40:46 MET 2000 - kiwi$

Usage

Should a .dotqmrc exist then it will be automatically used in case no arguments are given. -v is the verbose-switch. The file should look like this:  # comment-line, it's ignored   email-address     action 1   email-address2    action 2   etc.  The email-address can be a full-qualified, or just the login. Within your /var/qmail/control/ you setup for an user his virtual domain, so all email is forwarded to ~user, and here dotqm is usable to maintain all local forwardings for a particular user.

Example

dotqmrc:  # --- DOTQM Resource Sample File      #include <lists.qm>      john@example.com         &john@heaven.com   text-forward@example.com |preline procmail -f   info@example.com         |preline autoreply  lists.qm:  # --- My mailing-lists      friends-l   |preline list-handler -f friends-l   buddies-l   |preline list-handler -f buddies-l    lovers-l   |preline list-handler -f lovers-l   enemies-l   |preline list-handler -f enemies-l   % dotqm dotqmrc  which will create all .qmail-files. In case you need a 'non-delivery' case, a default, then use like this:  default         john@heaven.com

qmail-local Features

Within the .qmail-files you can have different actions: Mail-forwarding: email-address e.g. john@heaven.com or &john@heaven.com Mailbox: ./mbox-file e.g. ./mbox Maildir: ./maildir/ e.g. ./Maildir/ Program-feeding: |program e.g. |autoreply -f myoption Program-feeding + preline: |preline program e.g. |preline autoreply -f myoption preline is a program part of the qmail distribution, it provides UUCP conform header (From_ line). More info you find at dot-qmail (5).

QMail 3. QMLOCK

qmlock is a perl-program which is used with the dot-qmail-files to ensure a certain program is not used simultanously but scheduled, usually with mailing-list managers.

Usage: qmlock name command [args ...]

Use: .qmail-test:

| preline qmlock test list-handler -f test

It creates a file /tmp/qmlock-test for locking purposes, and makes sure 'list-handler -f test' is called only once, and all other qmail-calls (via .qmail-test) are delayed.

Switches:

-v[erbose] (verbose)

-r[etry] secs (define retry)

-t[imeout] secs (define timeout when lock should be ignored)

If you know procmail, then you obviously realize why qmlock is useful. procmail allows easy locking, and dotqm & qmlock replace some of the procmail-functionality.

We ran procmail with qmail, but since procmail can't handle Bcc: we dropped it (you have to work with Delivered-To: otherwise), and now handle all direct via qmail, with these two perl-scripts.

If you run 100+ mailing-lists and use qmlock be aware that in worst case x-times qmlock is running, each qmlock uses 500K (perl), so 100 x 0.5M are 50MB.

We will provide qmlock as C-source with preline functionally soon.

QMail 4. Other QMail Tools

QMail.Org Main site, many add-ons are listed there	Unified Qmail Patch Multiple useful patches merged together	qmHandle queue statistics
qTools other dot-qmail tools

                                                                                                                                   

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