On the server side, the book focuses on the University of Washington IMAP server--the standard implementation that IMAP inventor Mark Crispin wrote--and the feature-rich Cyrus IMAP server. The features of each are explained, in addition to how each integrates with its operating system. "Common Tasks" for each are covered, including details of precisely what system administrators have to do to establish access privileges on a mailbox, add users, set up shared folders and so on through their respective feature sets. Most of the how-to material takes the form of "type this, get that" listings, with plenty of annotation that explains what's going on. Later sections are platform-neutral, covering security (perhaps better covered in specialised texts), spam filtering and performance optimisation. Managing IMAP has done a great job of cataloguing and commenting upon the various IMAP administration utilities that exist. --David Wall

Virtually everything--not just computers, but every kind of device--is coming onboard the Internet, and the two principal applications are the World Wide Web and email. The POP3 model for online-only messaging is being taxed to its limit, and users clearly would like mail servers with more "oomph." More specifically, the demand is for email servers that take advantage of centralized resources to manage mail, rather than heap more tasks on end-user computers. This clamor has resulted in the IMAP protocol being incorporated into virtually every major email server on the market. Those havn't already installed IMAP are probably planning to do so.

Managing IMAP is a moveable feast of IMAP help. It is a handy guide for everyday tasks common to most IMAP servers as well as a concise reference to help navigate the sometimes sparsely and obtusely documented open-source software. Whether the goal is more insight into the IMAP server, client or utility software, or big-picture strategic suggestions to get off a legacy system, Managing IMAP is here to help.

This book is both a conceptual and mechanical IMAP road map. Managers, system integrators, and system administrators on the front lines of Internet messaging will find it a valuable tool for IMAP system provision, maintenance and support. It is also useful to anyone considering IMAP for their messaging system. Managing IMAP covers the IMAP protocol, setting up a client, IMAP security, performance monitoring, and tools. Several chapters are devoted specifically to two of the most popular servers: the University of Washington server and Cyrus, and detailed appendixes cover topics such as TCL, procmail, Sieve, and sendmail.

It is also useful to anyone considering IMAP for their messaging system. It covers the IMAP protocol, setting up a client, IMAP security, performance monitoring, and tools. Several chapters are devoted specifically to two of the most popular servers: the University of Washington server and Cyrus, and detailed appendixes cover topics such as TCL, procmail, Sieve, and sendmail.

In this chapter:
Cyrus System Administration
Common Tasks
Batch Account Maintenance
Shared Folders and Bulletin Boards
Mailstore Partitioning
Quota Maintenance
Disaster Recovery
Migration from Berkeley Mailbox Format to Cyrus
Mail Forwarding and Filtering
Usenet Integration
Troubleshooting
Adding SSL Support

Now that you've installed and configured the Cyrus server, you're faced with maintaining it. This chapter covers the basics of managing a Cyrus system on a day-to-day basis. We will walk through examples of how to create, delete, and list the properties of mailboxes using cyradm, the Cyrus administration tool. We will also see examples of how to use cyradm to manage existing mailboxes. Cyrus administrators are often faced with the task of creating, deleting, or modifying a batch of accounts. Examples of batch cyradm scripts are shown. We will also see examples of how to add and remove partitions to and from the Cyrus mailstore. Shared folders and bulletin boards are valuable features of the Cyrus server. We will see examples of how to set up and manage both.

Cyrus System Administration with cyradm
cyradm is a Tcl-based client for performing system administration on the Cyrus server. cyradm can be run in either interactive mode or batch mode. We will look at interactive mode first, and cover batch operations later in the chapter. Note that the information contained in this chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive account of cyradm --there are cyradm command options that are rarely used. See the manual page, cyradm (1), or Appendix A, Conversion from Berkeley Mail Format to Cyrus: Tools, for the nitty-gritty details. The objective here is to cover the most common tasks that Cyrus administrators encounter.

To start cyradm in interactive mode, simply enter the command:

$ cyradm -user username hostname port

username is a Cyrus administrative user defined in /etc/imapd.conf. hostname is the hostname of the Cyrus server. port defaults to port 143, the standard IMAP port. Here is an example interactive session:

$ cyradm -user cyrus localhost
localhost password: XXXXXXXX
localhost>

If you need help, type help at the prompt. When you want to quit, use one of the commands quit or exit.

cyradm has a set of commands for performing common tasks on a Cyrus system, such as creating accounts and listing users' quotas. Table 9-1 lists the commands and gives a brief description of the purpose of each. cyradm commands can be abbreviated to cut down on keystrokes

The renamemailbox command is more complicated than meets the eye--it renames a single mailbox only and ignores all other mailboxes in the hierarchy. A workaround for renaming complete mailbox hierarchies is provided later in this chapter.

The .cyradmrc File
If the file .cyradmrc exists in user 's home directory, cyradm will evaluate the file as a Tcl script after connecting and authenticating to server and just before reading the first command from standard input.

Common Tasks
This section shows examples of common tasks you'll perform every day using cyradm: listing, creating, and deleting mailboxes; setting quotas; and setting ACLs.

Listing Mailboxes
The listmailbox (or lm) command returns a list of mailbox names that match the pattern given as an argument. The pattern can contain one of the wildcard characters asterisk (*) or percent (%). The * wildcard matches zero or more characters. The % wildcard is like the * wildcard, except that it only matches mailboxes at a single level in the mailbox hierarchy.

You can list all the users on the system by listing their top-level mailboxes (remember, a top-level mailbox is essentially the same as a username in the Cyrus namespace):

localhost> listmailbox user.%

To list all mailboxes one level below abt0003 's top-level mailbox, you would use the % wildcard character to restrict output to include only that level:

localhost> listmailbox user.abt0003.%
user.abt0003.drafts user.abt0003.sent-mail

To list all users whose usernames begin with the letters abt, you would again use the % wildcard to restrict output to only top-level mailboxes:

localhost> listmailbox user.abt%
user.abt0003 user.abt0008

The next example shows how the * wildcard character returns mailboxes that match the pattern at all levels of the mailbox hierarchy:

localhost> listmailbox user.abt*

user.abt0003 user.abt0003.sent-mail user.abt0008.drafts
user.abt0003.drafts user.abt0008

Creating a Mailbox or Adding a User
The createmailbox (cm) command creates a new mailbox, mailbox. There is an optional partition argument that specifies the name of the partition on which to create the mailbox. If no partition is specified, the mailbox is created on the partition named default (it is defined in /etc/imapd.conf as the defaultpartition option).

On production Cyrus systems, users are usually added to the system in batches by running a script, but on occasion, you might have to add a new user manually. Once a top-level mailbox is created for a user, the user is officially "on the system" and can begin receiving email. To add a new user, abt0010, you would issue the command:

localhost> createmailbox user.abt0010
localhost> listmailbox user.abt0010
user.abt0010

abt0010 's top-level mailbox would be created on the defaultpartition.
TIP:

A top-level mailbox is essentially the same as an IMAP account--once a user has a top-level mailbox and some means to authenticate to the server, he or she has an account on the Cyrus server.

If the user does not already have authentication credentials, then you should set them up now--see Chapter 8, Configuring the Cyrus Server, for details on setting up authentication.

You may also create mailboxes below a user's top-level mailbox. Many sites create a few default mailboxes for each new user added to the system, such as a Trash mailbox (user.username.Trash) or a Drafts mailbox (user.username.Drafts), for the convenience of the user.

2004-08-23 Good book, but a bit dated