| 1 | The qmail package includes a local delivery agent, qmail-local, which |
| 2 | provides user-controlled mailing lists, cross-host alias loop detection, |
| 3 | and many other important qmail features. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | There's one important difference between qmail-local and binmail: |
| 6 | qmail-local delivers mail by default into ~user/Mailbox, rather than |
| 7 | /var/spool/mail/user. It uses mbox format, with lockf locking on systems |
| 8 | that don't have flock (HP/UX, Solaris), and flock locking otherwise. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | This file explains how to switch your system to ~user/Mailbox. You |
| 11 | aren't required to do this; for further discussion of /var/spool/mail, |
| 12 | and an explanation of how to continue using binmail for local |
| 13 | deliveries, see INSTALL.vsm. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The basic procedure for switching to ~user/Mailbox is simple: |
| 16 | |
| 17 | * Move each /var/spool/mail/user to ~user/Mailbox. For safety, do |
| 18 | this in single-user mode. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | * As root, set up a symbolic link from /var/spool/mail/user to |
| 21 | ~user/Mailbox for each user. /var/spool/mail should be mode 1777, |
| 22 | so users will not be able to accidentally remove these links. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | A few mail programs are unable to handle symbolic links, so you will |
| 25 | have to configure them to look at ~user/Mailbox directly: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | * procmail: Change SYSTEM_MBOX in config.h and recompile; or, with |
| 28 | recent versions, define MAILSPOOLHOME in src/authenticate.c. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | An alternative to symbolic links is hlfsd. Consult the documentation for |
| 31 | hlfsd if it is included in your operating system. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | If /var/spool/mail is large, you can gain extra speed by configuring |
| 34 | all your mail software to look at ~user/Mailbox directly: |
| 35 | |
| 36 | * Most MUAs: Put ``setenv MAIL $HOME/Mailbox'' in your system-wide |
| 37 | .cshrc and ``MAIL=$HOME/Mailbox; export MAIL'' in your system-wide |
| 38 | .profile. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | * elm: Change "mailbox" to "Mailbox" around line 388 of newmbox.c and |
| 41 | recompile. (elm looks at $MAIL, but without this change elm will |
| 42 | fail if two users try to read mail simultaneously.) |
| 43 | |
| 44 | * pine: Put ``inbox-path=Mailbox'' in your system-wide pine.conf. |
| 45 | (For pine versions more recent than 3.91, see also FAQ 6.2.) |
| 46 | |
| 47 | * qpopper 2.2: Change /.mail to /Mailbox in pop_dropcopy.c and |
| 48 | recompile with -DHOMEDIRMAIL in CFLAGS. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | Some vendors, in a misguided attempt to solve the security problems of |
| 51 | /var/spool/mail, have made all their mail software setgid mail. After |
| 52 | you move the mailboxes, you can---and, for security, should---remove |
| 53 | those setgid-mail bits. |