mdw@git.distorted.org.uk Git - qmail/blob - qmail-upgrade.9

   1 .TH qmail-upgrade 7
   2 .SH "NAME"
   3 qmail-upgrade \- user-visible differences between qmail and sendmail
   4 .SH "INTRODUCTION"
   5 You will notice some differences
   6 when the system switches from
   7 .B sendmail
   8 to
   9 .BR qmail .
  10 .TP 5
  11 1.
  12 .B qmail-local
  13 sends incoming mail to
  14 .B ~\fIyou\fB/Mailbox
  15 by default,
  16 not
  17 .BR /usr/spool/mail/\fIyou\fB .
  18 Your system administrator has changed your
  19 .B MAIL
  20 environment variable so that your mail reader looks for
  21 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/Mailbox .
  22 .B \fR(\fB/usr/spool/mail
  23 is a massive security problem.)
  24 .TP 5
  25 2.
  26 .B qmail-local
  27 pays no attention to
  28 .BR .forward .
  29 It has a much better mechanism,
  30 .BR .qmail ,
  31 so that you can handle not only forwarding
  32 but even your own mailing lists.
  33 See below for more details.
  34 .TP 5
  35 3.
  36 .B qmail-local
  37 pays no attention to
  38 .BR /etc/aliases .
  39 Your system administrator
  40 can use the
  41 .B .qmail
  42 mechanism instead.
  43 See below.
  44 .TP 5
  45 4.
  46 .B qmail
  47 does not support the
  48 .B \e\fIyou\fB
  49 mechanism
  50 for ignoring aliases.
  51 The
  52 .B .qmail
  53 mechanism is much more flexible;
  54 see below.
  55 .TP 5
  56 5.
  57 .B qmail-inject
  58 has a completely different philosophy from
  59 .B sendmail
  60 on interpreting non-fully-qualified host names.
  61 It uses fixed rules, not DNS.
  62 Some examples at UIC:
  63
  64 .EX
  65      russet -> russet.math.uic.edu
  66 .br
  67      newton -> newton.math.uic.edu
  68 .br
  69      ut.ee  -> ut.ee  (a host in Estonia)
  70 .br
  71      ut.ee+ -> ut.ee.uic.edu
  72 .br
  73      uicvm+ -> uicvm.uic.edu
  74 .EE
  75
  76 Here the
  77 .I default domain name
  78 (for hosts without dots)
  79 is
  80 .B math.uic.edu\fP,
  81 and the
  82 .I plus domain name
  83 is
  84 .B uic.edu\fP.
  85 .TP 5
  86 6.
  87 Unlike
  88 .BR sendmail ,
  89 .B qmail-inject
  90 doesn't replace host names with canonical names.
  91 Example:
  92 .B qmail-inject
  93 won't change
  94 .B postmaster@ftp.cs.berkeley.edu
  95 in your header to
  96 .BR postmaster@kohler.cs.berkeley.edu .
  97 .TP 5
  98 7.
  99 .B qmail-local
 100 adds a new field,
 101 .BR Delivered-To ,
 102 before every delivery.
 103 It uses the contents of
 104 .B Delivered-To
 105 to prevent mail forwarding loops.
 106 .TP 5
 107 8.
 108 If you send a message with only
 109 .B Bcc
 110 recipients,
 111 .B qmail-inject
 112 will add
 113 .B Cc: recipient list not shown:;\fR,
 114 rather than
 115 .BR sendmail 's
 116 privacy-invading
 117 .B Apparently-To
 118 header field.
 119 .SH "QMAIL MAILING LISTS"
 120 .B sendmail
 121 deals with aliases, forwarding, and mailing lists
 122 at the very heart of the mail system.
 123
 124 .B qmail
 125 takes a radically different approach.
 126 It gives you the power to set up your own mailing lists without
 127 pestering your system administrator.
 128
 129 Under
 130 .BR qmail ,
 131 you are in charge of all addresses of the form
 132 .B \fIyou\fBBREAK\fIanything\fR.
 133 The delivery of
 134 .B \fIyou\fBBREAK\fIanything
 135 is controlled by
 136 .B ~\fIyou\fB/.qmail-\fIanything\fR,
 137 a file in your home directory.
 138
 139 For example, if you want to set up a
 140 bug-of-the-month-club mailing list,
 141 you can put a list of addresses into
 142 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/.qmail-botmc .
 143 Any mail to
 144 .B \fIyou\fBBREAKbotmc
 145 will be forwarded to all of those addresses.
 146 Mail directly to
 147 .B \fIyou\fB
 148 is controlled by
 149 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/.qmail .
 150 You can even set up a catch-all,
 151 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/.qmail-default ,
 152 to handle unknown
 153 .B \fIyou\fBBREAK
 154 addresses.
 155
 156 Your
 157 .B .qmail
 158 files, like your old
 159 .BR .forward ,
 160 may list files,
 161 forwarding addresses,
 162 or other programs to run.
 163 (But beware that the syntax is a bit different;
 164 see
 165 .B dot-qmail(5)
 166 for more details.)
 167 .B qmail-local
 168 automatically
 169 detects forwarding loops the instant they occur,
 170 even if they happen indirectly through other hosts.
 171
 172 As a helpful special case, if a
 173 .B .qmail
 174 file is empty, it refers to
 175 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/Mailbox .
 176 For example, if you touch
 177 .BR ~\fIyou\fB/.qmail-direct ,
 178 mail for
 179 .B \fIyou\fBBREAKdirect
 180 will act like
 181 .B \e\fIyou\fB
 182 did under
 183 .BR sendmail .
 184
 185 Addresses that don't contain a username are handled by the
 186 .B alias
 187 user.
 188 For example, your system administrator has set up
 189 .B ~alias/.qmail-postmaster
 190 to handle mail for
 191 .BR Postmaster .
 192 (Note to administrators:
 193 .B ~alias
 194 doesn't apply to addresses that start with a user name,
 195 with certain exceptions.)
 196 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 197 addresses(5),
 198 dot-qmail(5),
 199 envelopes(5),
 200 qmail-header(8),
 201 qmail-inject(8)