hi,
I'm look around to find a usable imap server and find dovecot.
I read all the docs, but I've got a few questions:
- currently we use courier (since we find and install it quickly).
can we switch from it to dovecot smoothly?
or we have to convert the maildirs somehow?
- I've got a few plan in my mind it it possible to do it with dovecot
now or in the near future (if yes what is the estimated time)?:
- authenticate from LDAP, the best would be trough PAM?
- use the same user with different domain. eg: lfarkas at bnap.hu,
lfarkas at bppiac.hu with the same imap server? handle more domains.
- use imaps and use Digest-MD5 and/or CRAM-MD5?
- put a database backend under imap and store the mails in a database.
- use WITHOUT local users? it's very important! most case a user never
ever log into the local system and I would not like to put them into
/etc/password.
- do it all the above at the same time!?
thanks.
--
Levente http://petition.eurolinux.org/
"The only thing worse than not knowing the truth is
ruining the bliss of ignorance."
On Thu, 2002-12-05 at 17:56, Farkas Levente wrote:> hi, > I'm look around to find a usable imap server and find dovecot. > I read all the docs, but I've got a few questions: > - currently we use courier (since we find and install it quickly). > can we switch from it to dovecot smoothly? > or we have to convert the maildirs somehow?Dovecot works fine with Courier. We were using both simultaneously for months. Message UIDs aren't shared though.> - I've got a few plan in my mind it it possible to do it with dovecot > now or in the near future (if yes what is the estimated time)?: > - authenticate from LDAP, the best would be trough PAM?I don't have much LDAP plans right now .. PAM would likely already have existing LDAP plugins, but you'd also have to keep the users in /etc/passwd then (without passwords).> - use the same user with different domain. eg: lfarkas at bnap.hu, > lfarkas at bppiac.hu with the same imap server? handle more domains.Authentication issue mostly, with plain authentication Dovecot would just treat the whole user at domain as a username. Some other mechanisms do support realms, and Dovecot's Digest-MD5 and passwd-file support realms already.> - use imaps and use Digest-MD5 and/or CRAM-MD5?imaps and Digest-MD5 are already there. Digest-MD5 can't work (and can't be made to work) with PAM authentication though.> - put a database backend under imap and store the mails in a database.I've been thinking about SQL database support from the beginning. However it'd probably be slower and require a bit more memory than with the current indexes.> - use WITHOUT local users? it's very important! most case a user never > ever log into the local system and I would not like to put them into > /etc/password.Currently Dovecot supports passwd-like file where you could store the users. For example /etc/imap.passwd. Oh, and there's also vpopmail support which should handle virtual domains and LDAP and everything. Maybe you should try that. Although it again only support plaintext authentication.
On Fri, 2002-12-06 at 13:09, Farkas Levente wrote:> > I don't have much LDAP plans right now .. PAM would likely already have > > existing LDAP plugins, but you'd also have to keep the users in > > /etc/passwd then (without passwords). > why??? that's what I realy would like to avoid!!! is there any reason?PAM can only be used for checking if user/password matches, so it's missing the passwd information that Dovecot needs, at least home dir and uid. Although I had been thinking of making those some global settings in config file, so you could say homedir=/var/user/$USER$ uid=imapusers.> > I've been thinking about SQL database support from the beginning. > > However it'd probably be slower and require a bit more memory than with > > the current indexes. > > ohh? I assume a database should have to be faster, but this is just an > assumption...That's mostly because of a few tricks that Dovecot does with it's index files that aren't really possible with SQL databases. Multiuser mailboxes which are modified a lot are one thing where they could be faster than Dovecot's index files because of better locking. Besides, Dovecot's indexes could be called as a simple database..