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Re: Qmail-IMAP



On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Amos Shapira wrote:

> |Qmail has been VERY stable for the last few versions, the last security
> |hole squashed way back 8 months or more ago. Version 1.0 has been out for
> |quite a while, under a GNU-like license.
> 
> So would you install it on your most sensitive mail host as it is
> today?  Can anyone in this forum give me a reason NOT to install it?
> 

the only reason I am not doing it is because I'm selling my server and I
don't want to give away too many half-baked configurations in it, but it
will be the mailer of my choice at my next employer's, when I redesign
their firewall, web and mail servers (one of my first tasks there).

> |those people switch to qmail delivering to mbox and Qualcomm's Qpopper
> |server. I have no idea how well the qmail-imap functions, but it's based
> 
> What's wrong with maildirs?  UNIX-format mailboxes a simple text files
> and I was expecting to have those "special-format" files handle
> simulatanous access better.

they ARE better, but when each message is a separate file, and you have 4k
inodes, it becomes a problem with large ISP systems.

> 
> |on wu's daemon, i.e. same as pine's (not too good in my book).
> 
> OK, then we won't provide IMAP-4 functionality until this area clears
> (just noticed that Netscape Communicator supports IMAP, so I'd expect
> a demand for IMAP relatively soon)

of course! everybody thinks it's the next big thing! it's a much better
client/server system than pop. Netscape servers support it and soon
Microsoft too. I won't be surprised if it totally replaces POP within 2-3
years.

> I suppose that if/when I'll need tha more fancy stuff one day then
> I'll be able to route it from Qmail to a special sendmail machine...

that's the way to go. Qmail is more a collection of mail delivery and
processing tools than a mailer, it's not monolithic as sendmail, and
that's already a big advantage, you can add modules or replace existing
ones anywhere along the processing pipe very easely. forwards, filters and
virtual domains are don much smarter too.

> BTW, how busy is the mailing list?

5-20 messages a day. there is also an online archive, can't remember if
it's searchable, but over time, I collected and put aside many of the more
important messages in the last few months, in mbox format as saved by
pine. I can attach it to you, because it can serve as a very good HOWTO.



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