qmail has quietly become one of the most widely used applications on the Internet today. It's powerful enough to handle mail for systems with millions of users--Like Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, while remaining compact and manageable enough for the smallest Unix- and Linux-based PC systems. Its component design makes it easy to extend and customize while keeping its key functions secure, so it's no wonder that adoption of qmail continues at a rapid pace.

The downside? Apparently none. Except that qmail's unique design can be disorienting to those familiar with other popular MTAs (Mail Transfer Agents). If you're coming from sendmail, for instance, you might have trouble recasting your problems and solutions in qmail terms. qmail first helps you establish a "qmail frame of mind," then explores the installation, configuration, administration, and extension of this powerful MTA. Whether you're installing from scratch or managing mailing lists with thousands of users, qmail provides detailed information about how to make qmail do precisely what you want

qmail concentrates on common tasks like moving a sendmail setup to qmail, or setting up a "POP toaster," a system that provides mail service to a large number of users on other computers sending and retrieving mail remotely. The book also fills crucial gaps in existing documentation, detailing exactly what the core qmail software does.

Topics covered include:

• Installation and configuration, including patching qmail
  
• Moving from sendmail to qmail
  
• Handling locally and remotely originated messages
  
• Managing virtual domains
  
• Logging qmail activity
  
• Tuning qmail performance
  
• Running multiple copies of qmail on the same computer
  
• Mailing list setup and management
  
• Integrating the qmail MTA with POP and IMAP delivery
  
• Filtering out spam and viruses

If you need to manage mailing lists, large volumes of mail, or simply find sendmail and other MTAs too complicated, qmail may be exactly what's called for. Our new guide, qmail, will provide the guidance you need to build an email infrastructure that performs well, makes sense, and is easy to maintain.

Table of Contents：

Preface 


Part I. Introduction to Qmail

1. Internet Email

      Mail Basics 

      Mailstore 

      The Structure of Internet Mail 

2. How Qmail Works

      Small Programs Work Together 

      What Does a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) Do? 

      The Pieces of Qmail 

3. Installing Qmail

      Where to Find Qmail 

      Creating the Users and Groups 

      Configuring and Making the Software 

      Patching Qmail 

4. Getting Comfortable with Qmail

      Mailboxes, Local Delivery, and Logging 

      An Excursion into Daemon Management 

      Setting Up the Qmail Configuration Files 

      Starting and Stopping Qmail 

      Incoming Mail 

      Procmail and Qmail 

      Creating Addresses and Mailboxes 

      Reading Your Mail 

      Configuring Qmail's Control Files 

      Using ~alias 

      fastforward and /etc/aliases 

5. Moving from Sendmail to Qmail

      Running Sendmail and Qmail in Parallel 

      User Issues 

      System Issues 

      Converting Your Aliases File 

      Trusted Users 

6. Handling Locally Generated Mail

      qmail-queue 

      Cleaning Up Injected Mail 

      Accepting Local Mail from Other Hosts 

      Distinguishing Injected from Relayed Mail 

7. Accepting Mail from Other Hosts

      Accepting Incoming SMTP Mail 

      Accepting and Cleaning Up Local Mail Using the Regular SMTP Daemon 

      Dealing with Roaming Users 

      SMTP Authorization and TLS Security 

      POP-before-SMTP 

8. Delivering and Routing Local Mail

      Mail to Local Login Users 

      Mail Sorting 

9. Filtering and Rejecting Spam and Viruses

      Filtering Criteria 

      Places to Filter 

      Spam Filtering and Virus Filtering 

      Connection-Time Filtering Tools 

      SMTP-Time Filtering Tools 

      Delivery Time Filtering Rules 

      Combination Filtering Schemes 


Part II. Advanced Qmail

10. Local Mail Delivery

      How Qmail Delivers Local Mail 

      Mailbox Deliveries 

      Program Deliveries 

      Subaddresses 

      Special Forwarding Features for Mailing Lists 

      The Users Database 

      Bounce Handling 

11. Remote Mail Delivery

      Telling Local from Remote Mail 

      qmail-remote 

      Locating the Remote Mail Host 

      Remote Mail Failures 

      Serialmail 

12. Virtual Domains

      How Virtual Domains Work 

      Some Common Virtual Domain Setups 

      Some Virtual Domain Details 

13. POP and IMAP Servers and POP Toasters

      Each Program Does One Thing 

      Starting the Pop Server 

      Testing Your POP Server 

      Building POP Toasters 

      Picking Up Mail with IMAP and Web Mail 

14. Mailing Lists

      Sending Mail to Lists 

      Using Ezmlm with qmail 

      Using Other List Managers with Qmail 

      Sending Bulk Mail That's Not All the Same 

15. The Users Database

      If There's No Users Database 

      Making the Users File 

      How Qmail Uses the Users Database 

      Typical Users Setup 

      Adding Entries for Special Purposes 

16. Logging, Analysis, and Tuning

      What Qmail Logs 

      Collecting and Analyzing Qmail Logs with Qmailanalog 

      Analyzing Other Logs 

      Tuning Qmail 

      Tuning to Deal with Spam 

      Looking at the Mail Queue with qmail-qread 

17. Many Qmails Make Light Work

      Tools for Multiple Computers and Qmail 

      Setting Up mini-qmail 

18. A Compendium of Tips and Tricks

      Qmail Won't Compile