Re: Mail retrieval / delivery
C Masters wrote:
> On Thursday 08 November 2001 15:08, Craig Dickson wrote:
>
> > Here's what I have set up:
> >
> > Incoming mail:
> >
> > On Debian #1, fetchmail, running from per-user crontabs, retrieves
> > our mail. (I want to change this to be a single system-wide fetchmail
> > running as a daemon, but I haven't got round to it yet.) It gives the
> > mail to exim, also running on Debian #1, which sends it to procmail
> > for filing. Our firewall blocks the SMTP port, so I don't have to
> > worry about anyone compromising my systems via some exim exploit, nor
> > do I have to worry about being an open relay for spammers.
>
> Details on this setup would be ~greatly~ appreciated. I'd like to set
> up fetchmail in daemon mode so that it runs continually, regardless of
> whether anyone is currently logged on to this box. I've attempted to
> set up exim, but that's more or less where my confidence evaporates.
Fetchmail's pretty easy to set up. Use the fetchmailconf X front-end to
create a ~/.fetchmailrc for yourself, which, to run as a system-wide
daemon, you will then need to move to /etc/fetchmail.
To get fetchmail working as a daemon after you've made your
/etc/fetchmailrc, edit /etc/default/fetchmail to make the following
changes:
SERVICE=true
RUNASROOT=true
Or leave RUNASROOT=false and set up a fetchmail user account for the
daemon to use. I haven't done that yet, though I should (it would help
protect my system against any exploits in fetchmail that might be
discovered and abused), so I can't tell you if there are any gotchas
involved.
Then, as root, execute /etc/init.d/fetchmail to start the daemon, and
check syslog for errors.
> I'm also on a DSL line that is always "up". I think I'd better stick to
> using my ISP's smtp server. I take it that I would setup exim as a
> smarthost then? Details also appreciated.
There is a script called eximconfig that can help you to get started. Do
the best you can with that, then read through /etc/exim/exim.conf and
see if you like the options it set. Ask this mailing list if any of it
is puzzling.
> > Debian #2 has ssmtp installed, which is just a simple mail forwarder
> > that I configured to send all mail to exim on Debian #1. The only
> > mail it sends, generally, is daemon errors mailed to root, which are
> > re- addressed to my account at Debian #1.
>
> As I only have the one box, would I be able to include forwarding of
> logs and/or internal mail between users in this setup?
If mail is sent to an unqualified username (i.e. no @domain specified),
exim will try to deliver it to a local account of that name. If the mail
is addressed to you@your-isp.com (where you is both your local username
and your username at your-isp.com), then my guess is that it will
probably be routed to your ISP's servers and back to you by default. You
should be able to set up a rewrite rule in exim to optimize that,
though.
I hope all this helps. Feel free to ask for more.
Craig
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