This is the GNU mailutils package ================================= This package contains a series of useful mail clients, servers, and libraries. These are the primary mail utilities of the GNU system. Specifically, this package contains a pop3 server, and an imap4 server. It also provides a POSIX `mailx' client, and a collection of other tools. The central library is capable of reading mail from an `mbox' mailbox, as well as off of local or remote pop3 and imap4 servers. You're welcome to use this library in your own programs, please see the examples subdirectory or these other applications. All libraries are licensed using the GNU LGPL. The documentation is licensed under the GNU FDL, and the Sieve library is licensed under a CMU license. Everything else is licensed using the GNU GPL. This software is part of the GNU project and belongs to the Free Software Foundation. Why use this package? ===================== This package started off to try and handle large mailbox files more gracefully then current pop3 servers did. While it handles this task, it also allows you to support a variety of different mailbox formats without any real effort on your part. Also, if a new format is added at a later date, your program will support that new format automatically as soon as it is compiled against the new library. This server is also released as part of Debian, so you should expect it to compile cleanly on all the platforms supported there. How to install ============== Please see the INSTALL file in this directory for the generic instructions on how to use configure. The following short summary describes the mailutils- specific configuration options: --enable-debug Compile mailutils with debugging support. This disables compiler optimizations and adds debugging information to the binaries. --disable-pam Do not build PAM support. By default configure will build PAM support if the host system supports it. Use this option to suppress this behaviour. --disable-pthread Do not build thread-safe libraries. --enable-mysql Enable support for authentication via MySQL. Note that depending on how your MySQL system is installed, this may require adding appropriate directories to the library and include paths, e.g.: ./configure LIBS='-L/usr/local/mysql/lib' \ CPPLAGS='-I/usr/local/mysql/include' --enable-mysql --enable-virtual-domains Enable support for authentication using virtual mail domains. Note that this is also needed if you wish to run testsuites for pop3d and imap4d daemons. The following option controls where exactly the domain database should be located: --with-virtual-pwddir=DIR Use DIR instead of $sysconfdir/domain as the location of virtual mail domain database. --without-readline Build 'mail' without readline support. --with-gssapi Enable GSSAPI authentication. For this to work, you will have to have Kerberos V installed on your system. --without-guile Do not build guile interface library. --with-mail-rc=FILE Set the location of the system-wide configuration file for mail utility. FILE must be an absolute filename specification. Default is $sysconfdir/mail.rc --with-mail-spool=PATH Override the location of the mailspool. The default value depends on the system. Usually it is either /var/spool/mail or /var/mail. PATH is either an absolute directory name, or a valid `mbox' URL in the form: mbox:path;type=TYPE;param=N;user= This method allows you to use indexed mailspools. For servers with a really big number of users this may provide a significant speedup in opening the mailbox. TYPE is one of: hash -- The user's mailbox is kept in a subdirectory whose name is determined by hashing first N characters of the user name. There are 256 subdirectories named from 00 through FF. index -- The user's mailbox is located PARAM directories down the `path'. The directories are named after the first N letters of a login name. For example, when N=2 the mailbox for user `smith' is `/var/spool/mail/s/m/smith'. rev-index -- Same as above, except that the last letters are used, thus the mailbox for `smith' will be /var/spool/mail/h/t/smith. This may provide a better average distribution than the `index' method. If you wish to use APOP authentication in POP3 daemon, you will have to enable DBM support in mailutils. To do so, use one of the following options: --with-gdbm Use GDBM --with-db2 Use Berkeley DB --with-ndbm Use NDBM --with-dbm Use old DBM Only one dbm option may be specified. Which one depends on the flavor of DBM you are using. GDBM is most common for GNU system. --with-log-facility=facility Enable logging to the given syslog facility. Default is `mail'. --without-included-regex Don't compile regex; this is the default on systems with version 2 of the GNU C library (use with caution on other systems) Where to report BUGS ==================== Please report any bugs to . We encourage sysadmins who will be using this package to subscribe to this list by sending an email to with the word `subscribe' in the body of the message. Another way to subscribe is by visiting http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-mailutils.